Pieropan Recioto Di Soave Colombare 2004
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Robert
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In early spring, the semi-dried grapes are pressed, and the resulting wine is aged in oak barrels for two years. Intense gold, almost amber coloured, delicately reminiscent of exotic fruit and apricots on the nose, its initial impression on the palate is delicately sweet, a prelude to pleasing and unexpected aromatic complexity.
Excellent on its own or at the end of a meal, to accompany almond pastries, blue cheese such as gorgonzola, or mature cheeses.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2004 Recioto di Soave Le Colombare is Garganega that is air-dried for several months prior to being vinified and then aged in French oak. This sumptuous dessert wine flows from the glass with honey, flowers, dried figs, apricots, candied orange peel and a multitude of aromas and flavors that engage the senses in stunning style. Le Colombare is a great wine to match with cheeses. Anticipated maturity: 2008-2014.
This is another strong showing from Pieropan, one of the reference-point producer for the wines of Soave.
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Wine & Spirits
Made from garganega grapes that are air dried then fermented and aged in oak for two years, this is beguiling in its rich balance of savory and sweet, a compelling, intensely structured dessert wine. Initial flavors or smoked apple and spiced plum shift with air, becoming white peach and apricot, with an edge of minerality. The best part is the finish, which feels like it could last forever.
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Wine Enthusiast
Beautiful and luminous, this amber-colored Recioto di Soave is generous and opulent. Its many aromatic layers include apricot, honey, toasted almond and butterscotch. It has rich sweetness and enough tingling acidity to tickle your tongue and keep the palate refreshed.
Enclosed by the original town walls and dominated by its medieval fortress, Soave has a peaceful, timeless quality about it. In the heart of the old town is the winery of Leonildo and Teresita Pieropan, which goes back to 1860. The present Leonildo ("Nino")'s grandfather, Leonildo Senior, founded the estate and 'invented' Recioto di Soave, a concentrated dessert wine applying a system similar to Tuscany's governo to the indigenous, white Garganega grape.
Today, the estate's 74 acres under vine include three single vineyards, all within the historical backbone of the Soave appellation (Soave Classico): Calvarino, La Rocca and Le Colombare. Terrain is respectively clayey/basaltic, calcareous/clayey, and clayey/marly/tuffaceous, yielding small crops of highly concentrated Garganega and Trebbiano grapes. The range is crafted by Leonildo himself, whose wine-making genius, constant research and innovative methods have carved a unique niche for these exceptional, extract-full and long-living whites that go far, far beyond their own appellation.
Apart from the classics, we find many regional gems of different styles.
Late harvest wines are probably the easiest to understand. Grapes are picked so late that the sugars build up and residual sugar remains after the fermentation process. Ice wine, a style founded in Germany and there referred to as eiswein, is an extreme late harvest wine, produced from grapes frozen on the vine, and pressed while still frozen, resulting in a higher concentration of sugar. It is becoming a specialty of Canada as well, where it takes on the English name of ice wine.
Vin Santo, literally “holy wine,” is a Tuscan sweet wine made from drying the local white grapes Trebbiano Toscano and Malvasia in the winery and not pressing until somewhere between November and March.
Rutherglen is an historic wine region in northeast Victoria, Australia, famous for its fortified Topaque and Muscat with complex tawny characteristics.
Among Italy’s classic whites capable of great potential, Soave is named after the medieval village and surrounding hillsides from whence it comes. The original, historical Soave zone, delimited back in 1927, covers the eastern, volcanic hillsides of today's general Soave zone and is called Soave Classico.
Garganega, the indigenous grape responsible for great Soave, produces medium bodied white wines with fine acidity. Typical in the best Soaves are lively flowery and fresh herbal aromas and flavors such as orange zest, peach, melon and marjoram. The best can take some age and in so doing, develop notes of chamomile, marmalade and honey.
By the 1960s and 70s, Soave was enjoying such a glorious global reputation, that its demand forced growers to push beyond the zone's original borders. Expansion led west out of the hills and onto the alluvial plain of the Adige River. This, coupled with an increase in yields and allowance of additional varieties such as Trebbiano, Chardonnay and Pinot blanc, met demand but created a softer, fruit-forward, everyday Soave. Today the broader region can be the source of charming and value driven whites. But those labeled as Soave Classico or in rare cases, as Soave Colli Scaligeri (nearby hillside vineyards abutting the Classico zone), will be the best quality and age-worthy Soaves. These are often 100% Garganega.