Pieropan ‘Collezione Vini dell Anima’ Soave La Rocca 2015

Why is this Wine so Yummy?

There are characters we look for in the best wines: length, depth, balance, complexity, freshness, development, mouthfeel, delicacy, and overall beauty, personality, if you prefer.

Development in the bottle harmonises the wine; it builds generosity of flavour and mid-palate weight. Reserve wines for Champagnes are held for this reason to add richness to new blends. This development adds nectar, honey, maple, toasty and nutty aromas and flavours. The texture softens, as the youthful firm acid settles, and phenolic components oxidise and settle out too. All the components integrate, yielding a seamless, delicate thing of beauty.

The longevity of fortified wines, through the addition of alcohol and their high sugar content, allows components 10, 20, 50, even 100 years old to be used in blends.

Here the perfect, cold storage conditions in the cellars have offered the same opportunity for a white wine.

The development here is clear yet the wines remain wonderfully vital and fresh with loads of energy. The mouthfeel is divine. The length, layering, and complexity offered by patience is divine.

To some degree this approach takes a little guess work out and allows the maker to predict the future, bringing together the earthy, dirty, savoury components with the perfumed, fruity, sweet elements and fine tuned balance and texture. With a final flourish adding a tiny hit of sulphur to freshen the wine bringing it all together & bung a fresh seal in the top!

The Collezione ‘wine of the soul’ cellar program pays homage to Leonildo Pieropan and 2015 is the inaugural release. Calvarino and La Rocca were aged for ten years on fines lees – Calvarino in concrete and La Rocca in botti – and both wines were bottled earlier this year. Bottled under cork, 750ml are packed in wooden boxes of three bottles and the magnums are hand painted and in a single wooden box.

The vineyard ‘La Rocca’ is situated on the Monte Rocchetta hill, just below the mediaeval castle built by the Scaligeri family in the town of Soave. The microclimate in this vineyard produces wines with a unique perfume and distinctive taste. The grapes are picked when very ripe, often as late as the end of October, giving tremendous complexity and aromatic qualities to the wine, making it a wine of great breeding. The wine was first made under this label in 1978.

Denomination: Soave Classico DOC.

Grape varieties: 100% Garganega

Geographical location: Hillside vineyard in the Soave Classico zone.

Vineyard characteristics: Chalky, clay soils, situated at 200-300m above sea level, facing south-west.

Training: Spur pruned cordon trained with 5000 vines per hectare.

Defence method: Holistic, low environmental impact approach to pest control.

Buds per vine: 8 buds per vine. Average age of vines: 10-50 years old.

Yields per hectare: 60 hl (2 kg per vine).

Harvesting: Handpicked at the end of October, often in two harvests to select the ripest grapes.

Vinification techniques: The grapes are destemmed and crushed then it is done a short maceration with skin contact in 2500 litre barrels Ageing: Organoleptic properties: At the end of fermentation, the wine is racked into barrels of between 2000 and 500 litres capacity where it ages for 10 years. During this period, the wine remains on the fine lees where is acquires complexity and a rich bouquet. It is held in bottle for some time before release.

Oganoleptic properties: perfume: tasting notes: total acidity: alcoholic content: brilliant and intense yellow whit golden hints; characterful wine, reminiscent of exotic fruit and nuts on the nose; soft and persistent on the palate, with hints of spice, length and elegance.

About Pieropan

Leonildo (Nino) Pieropan showed the world just how great Garganega can be. Nino recognised the importance of terroir early on, expanding the family’s hillside vineyards and creating his single vineyard wines, Calvarino in 1971 and La Rocca in 1978. Today, sons Andrea (viticulturist) and Dario (winemaker), maintain the family’s profound commitment to the terroir and tradition of Soave and, more recently, Valpolicella. The single vineyard Soave wines, Calvarino and La Rocca, are polar opposites, yet they share a remarkable capacity to age gracefully. Calvarino, with 30% Trebbiano, is oak-free with pure fruit that is tight and minerally. La Rocca, from the vineyard that overlooks the town itself, is late harvested and aged in large cask, displaying ripe tropical fruit with an intense, layered palate that is velvety and persistent.

The video below offers an excellent profile of Pieropan. Digging into the history of the winery and winemaking in the region. Enjoy!

Listen to Andrea Pieropan discuss Pieropan’s history with Monty Waldin.

In the Winery

In 2022 Pieropan opened a new winery built into the hillside below their vineyards. Below you see botte on the left used to age La Rocca and cement tanks on the right used to age Calvarino.

Where in the World is Pieropan?

Is located in Soave in the region of Veneto in the north-east of Italy. Soave lies just to the west of Verona.