Pieropan winery

Hello everybody,

recently I've been in Soave to visit the Pieropan winery. I've been drinking Pieropan's Soave Classico for years now, it is my go to bottle when I don't want to think about what I'm drinking and its very good value for money. Honestly I didn't know what to expect, I knew the name was fairly big but I never knew how big; when I reached the winery I was surprised.

The Pieropan family has been making wines in Soave since 1880; it was founded by Leonildo, a doctor, who decided to make something of the family estate named "Calvarino". He started the winery in the family house, Palazzo Pullici, in the village center - where it has been up until very recently.

The business was then picked up by Leonildo's sons.

In 1970 the last remaining heir, also named Leonildo, restructured the business, he bought significant plots of land in the hills of Soave, he introduced new technologies in the winery and started experimenting with new techniques. This innovation would bring Pieropan in the forefront of Soave production, with world recognition of its wines and setting a new trend for quality.

The Pieropan winery has been very important in terms of winemaking milestones in Italy. In 1971 they made their cru wine "Calvarino", the first white wine made with an indigenous grape coming from a single vineyard; in 1978 they first vinified their "La Rocca" with the use of oak barriques, first time this was happening in Soave. In 2007/2008 Leonildo and other wine producers and friends founded FIVI - Federazione Italiana Vignaioli Indipendenti - an association made to represent and protect indipendent winemakers who grow, vinify and bottle their own grapes and wines. They were one of the first wineries in Italy to use protected atmoshpere bottling using the inert gas nitrogen to protect wines from oxydation and reducing the need of adding sulfites at bottling.

In recent times the winery grew even bigger and the city center Palazzo was just not big enough to accomodate the volume of wine being made. In 2014 the family bought a large plot of land on the outskirts of the town, in the middle of the vineyards and decided to build their new, 10000 square meters winery there. They invested almost twenty million Euros for this top of the art winery built inside the hill (reminding me of Antinori's nel Chianti Classico winery) which was officially opened in April 2022 (just a month before my visit).

The new winery on the hills of Soave

The exposed part of the winery feautures many narrow and high windows which provide a lot of natural light to the offices and bottling part of the winery, whereas the deeper parts are darker and are kept cool by all the soil on top of it, perfect for the ageing of the wines.

Every single wine they make has a dedicated room for fermentation and ageing and every single parcel, for all wines, are vinified indipendently giving a very big range of choices at the blending stage.

Their Soave Classico, made from 85% Garganega and 15% Trebbiano di Soave, is fermented and aged on the lees in cement vats and is released the year after the harvest. It is a fresh, floral wine with some added body and creaminess from the lees ageing and it is very good value for money sitting at 10 Euros a bottle; as I said my go to wine when I'm in doubt.

Cement vats used for Soave Classico

Kicking it up a notch we go into Calvarino, this single vineyard is located in the heart of the hills in the Soave Classico denomination; again this wine is made from Garganega and Trebbiano di Soave, with the latter being increased to 30% of the blend. The harvest starts between the second and third week of September and is usually conducted in two passages to pick only ripe fruit. The vinification is made in concrete vats but it is then transfered into concrete eggs for the lees ageing. The shape of these eggs promotes the formation of convective currents inside, keeping the lees in suspension. This increases the effect they have on the wine adding structure and complexity.

Concrete egg with Calvarino inside ageing on its lees

Calvarino fully expresses the ripe fruit it comes from, with aromas of yellow flowers, pear, apple, stone fruit and nutty aromas of almond and hazelnut.

Their top white wine is La Rocca, this wine was born as an experiment. The first vintage of 76/77 were vinified in cement but it did not deliver the hoped result so it was the 1978 vintage that was vinified in oak. This was unheard of in Soave, at the time the wines were made with low concentration coming from high yields of grapes, there was no focus on quality. In fact for 15 years not a single bottle of La Rocca was sold in Italy but it was recognized as a high quality wine abroad, especially the USA.

The La Rocca single vineyard is situated just below the medieval Scaligero castle of Soave, planted only with Garganega. As said the wine is fermented in big oak barrels and is then aged for 15 months in oak barrels and barriques on its lees, with a proportion of new oak. Rhe microoxygenation allowed by the wood increases complexity, the new barriques impart flavours as well such as vanilla and toast.

Barrique room, La Rocca

Pieropan also makes Valpolicella and Amarone della Valpolicella wines from vineyards on Monte Garzon; the winery is located in an 18th century villa in Cellare d'Illasi, Villa Cipolla Pellegrini.

The vineyards are sitting at around 500mt above sea level, this kind of altitude means: lower temperatures and high diurnal ranges (up to 20°C), which help to retain acidity and favour a slow ripening of aromas and flavours. Sadly I didn't get to visit that winery (I was short on time) but I will go there soon.

At the end of the visit we had a tasting of four wines:

Ghes Brut, a tank method sparkling wine made from Corvina; the grapes are picked last at the third passage in the Valpolicella vineyard, they are the less ripe grapes which can not be used for the Valpolicella Superiore; but since they are perfect for making sparkling wines with their higher acidity. It is a very fruity wine with aromas of blood orange peel, grapefruit, strawberry and some peach. The acidity is medium with a discreet orange and grapefruit finish; it is a nice wine, suited as a summer afternoon drink.

Soave Classico 2021, it was bottled two months prior the tasting. The bouquet is pronounced with concentrated stone fruit (peach and apricot) and hints of refreshing citrus; the mouthfeel is smooth with a medium + body, a lot of citrus at the palate with a high acidity, lacks a bit of finish.

Calvarino 2020, it is a bit more shy than the Soave Classico, it opens up after some time in the glass with ripe stone fruit, mango and cherry blossom with hints of cream and yeast. On the palate we find high acidity that balances well the full body of this wine, again stone fruit with pleasant notes of wet stones and minerals, the finish is medium +, a very good wine.

We concluded our tasting with the Amarone della Valpolicella Vigna Garzon 2016, the wine was made with delicate extraction and relatively cool fermentation temperatures. The aromas are pronounced with sour cherry raspberry sage pepper and cherry, extremely high acidity and a fruit concentration that perfectly balance the high alcohol, sitting at 16,8% abv, very well balanced and vertical. Not your typical Amarone (I never had one that was even remotely close to this style), it's a very good wine and honestly I liked it more than the typical off-dry, cooked fruit, "fat" Amarone.

I recomend visiting this winery, the place is really cool (architecture wise), the wines are very good and the visit is cheap at 25 Euros. Definetly worth it.

Thanks,

Dino