Most people have written off Soave entirely. That’s understandable. For decades the name meant cheap, thin Italian white wine — the kind of thing that ends up in a carafe at a red-checkered-tablecloth restaurant without anyone asking for it by name. A lot of Soave still is that. But the category has a ceiling most drinkers have never seen, and the 2023 Pieropan La Rocca is about as close to that ceiling as it gets.
The Pieropan family has been making wine in Soave since 1890. The fourth generation runs things now, and their La Rocca bottling — named for the single five-hectare vineyard it comes from on the slopes of Monte Rocchetta — has been one of the benchmarks of Italian white wine since its first release in 1978. The vineyard is farmed organically, the soils are limestone-rich clay, and the grape is 100 percent Garganega.
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