Early evening view of Lake Garda in Bardolino
Normally I'm not a great lover of rosé wines, viewing the great number of not only French rosé wines here in Belgium and those from the so called "new world-wines, with a disputable reputation, not to mention the wines restaurateurs and brasseries who are serving this wines to the tourist ore people who are knowing nothing of wine and are drinking this as refreshment.
Drink and forget what you just drunk.
To my surprise, also viewing the reputation of Garda wines in history, most of them ware good to very good and mostly whit good price setting.
Also to my surprise we discovered these wines, made for a great part ore 100 % Corvina grapes have a good potential to age well what we normally don't know. Most of them have to be consumed within the year.
Not to my surprise, I didn't got much collaboration from the wineries I was interested in. I waited for many months to a response and samples to taste and present here in Belgium but as often with small wineries... no response.
The result? My wife and I took a little vacation in September and visited a few wineries but not only in the zone of Garda.
For me, the best winery we visited this time was "Le Vigne di San Pietro" in Sommacampagna.
We tasted:
* Custoza or Bianco di Custoza 2018 DOC:
Grapes: Garganega, Trebbianello, Trebbiano, Cortese, Manzoni Bianco
Good fresh starter, fruity and good balance, good with antipasto fish or aperitif
* Custoza Superiore San Pietro 2016 DOC :
After fermentation 6 month in oak tonneaux
Nice colour, great fresh nose, fruity and full, good full taste, great with fish, pasta etc...
* Bardolino Chiaretto 2018 DOC
100 % Corvina
Very good rosé, aperitif, antipasta, fish and even white meat.
* Bardolino 2017 DOC
Corvina, Rondinella and a little bit of Merlot
Easy red wine as starter and good with simple dishes
*100 % Corvina
Good transparent and deep red colour, great complex nose, if one does not know one could present this wine as a Burgundy wine, great attack and long staying complex wine in the mouth and a good aftertaste. One to remember, can resist and compeed with many great wines.
- Refola Ripasso 2011 DOC
Cabernet Sauvignon Ripasso
A great wine however not to my likings, I don't like this style of ripasso
Full body and great taste an aftertaste, long but ...
This is a beautiful winery in a great setting and surrounding, friendly and great wines. What does one need more.
The wines are now available in Belgium by Swaffou..
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An other winery I appreciated a lot during the Chiaretto event and who was willing to participating with entering her wines to our tasting in Belgium but we also visited was the winery of
Giovanna Tandini
A fairly recently, around 15-20 years family estate situated around the communes of Castelnuovo del Garda and Sona and the aim is to personalise their wines with great expression and long life. They only produce 4 DOC wines and 2 IGT.
The wines we tasted in the winery and here in Belgium together with amateur and professional wine-tasters are:
- Custoza 2018 DOC: made from Garganega, Trebbianello, Trebbiano Toscana and a little percentage of Tokay and Chardonnay. Nice vivid straw yellow colour; Fruity nose with apple and some exotic touches. Fruity attach with good freshness, good body (volume) and long aftertaste. Can accompany many dishes from antipasta over fish and white meat. Very good.
- Chiaretto 2018 DOC: or Bardolino Chiaretto: Grapes Corvina, Rondinella and Molinara; Colour light pink, very clean and shining; Fresh fruity nose; Fruity vivid and fresh attack; all-round wine for aperitif, with antipasto over fish and pasta. Good length.
- Bardolino 2017 DOC: Grapes: Corvina and Rondinella: In stainless steel for 15 months and 3 months in bottle before commercialisation. Clear deep red with orange touches; Nose of ripe cherries and dark fruit; good soft taste with good balance, not the greatest year but one of the better ones of this year. good with meat, tortellini, cheese, fish, and mushrooms
- MA.GI.CO. 2017 DOC: Corvina; very pale red wine, almost dark rosé; very light fruity and very short, simple but summer wine.
- Greta 2012 IGT: 100 % Corvina "appasita" (dried) on the vine, harvest mid November, aged in 5 Hl tonneau for 24 months; Clear ruby red with orange reflection; in the nose light oxidatif red fruit and peppery, great attack in the mouth with very nice round tannins and great aftertaste. Very good wine for this sort of wine-amateur. Wine in honour to her daughter.
- Ettore 2011 IGT: 65 % Corvina, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot; The Corvina is dried for 20 days while the Merlot is freshly picked and fermented; after the fermentation the wine goes in French barrels for 24 months and stays for 10 month in bottle before commercialisation; age very well. I only had one word for this wine: GREAT.
Then again we went to the cantina of her brother in the city centre of Lazise where we tasted the wines of the Societa Agricola Fratelli Zanoni, also part of Giovanna's husband.
I don't know if it was the moment of the day but I can only recommend one wine;
- Syrah 2015 IGT: 100 % Syrah grapes harvested late September, ageing in barriques for 24 months; garnet red with orange reflection, great pure spicy nose, pepper and cinnamon, fruity and balsamic; Great attack in the mouth, soft tannins and mouthfilling; great aftertaste. For someone like me who's not a great amateur of the general Syrah grape unless if he's well made, this is really a great wine.
I am looking for an interested importer in Belgium for this wines, they are worth it.
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Veneto part 2
We started by visiting Tenuta Sant’ Antonio in ownership of the four brothers Castagnedi in the hills and the centre of Valpolicella, at San Zeno di Colognola, where they make the most famous wines of Amarone, Valpolicella and Soave.
A number of years ago I already visited the estate together with other international journalist and I was so fascinated by their wines that I decided to visit them again with my wife, also a professional taster.
In my mail I asked to do the tasting together with the enologist Paolo and at arrival on top of the hill we were welcomed by the charming wife of Paolo
So, after the official welcome an visit to the cellars, at the start of the harvest for the white wines, with some explanation of the harvest results of the last years we started the tasting of the wines.
We tasted almost the whole range of their wines, from the easy but tasty Soave, the beautiful Soave Monte Ceriani 2017 and of course the Vecchie Vigne 2016, still very young and full taste and aftertaste.
Then came some “BIO” wines, named Telos, which I normally don’t like very much but they were beautiful made; the Pinot Grigio very floral and exotic fruity with good aftertaste, a Chardonnay that taste as sauvignon, very mineral and very interesting taste with length; but overall give me the “normally” made wines.
Then came the red wines. To start with the easy but enjoyable Valpolicella Nanfre 2018, a good starter; over the Monte Garbi 2017 Ripasso and the Valpolicella Superiore La Bandina 2015; beautiful and great wine, tobacco and spices, nobel tanines and long aftertaste.
Then again a bio-wine Telos Il Rosso 2016; nobel tannin, full taste with liquorice and long aftertaste.
Then came the Amarone 2015, good starter; over the Camp dei Gigli 2015 Amarone, big wine, very tasty everything superior but 16% alcohol; one don’t need much.
And then to end this beautiful tasting: the Lilium Est 2007 Amarone, what can one say about this superb wine, everything in it and on it, this is Amarone at bits best. I couldn't resist to leave without one bottle of this great wine.
My honest biggest thanks to Paolo.
We did also visit one other estate but after this I can’t say anything more.
I know for sure there are other good estates but as always short of time. Till next time in the Veneto.
Timé
