Soave
Moderate, with volcanic hills
Hills east of Verona making Italy's best-known dry white from Garganega, ranging from simple and everyday to serious, volcanic-soil Classico.
Overview
About Soave
Soave lies in the hills east of Verona around the walled town of the same name, with a smaller, higher-quality Classico zone on its oldest, steepest slopes. The grape is Garganega, usually with a little Trebbiano di Soave, giving wines of almond, white flower and citrus with a distinctive, faintly bitter almond finish.
Much Soave sold internationally in the late 20th century was thin, mass-produced wine from the flat plain, which cost the name its reputation even as a core of quality growers kept making serious, age-worthy Classico from old, low-yielding vines.
Soave is marked on the map.
Italy
Shaded: Verona. Map units are states, provinces or départements, so a smaller place appears as the larger area that contains it.
The land
Climate & terroir
Climate
Moderate, with volcanic hills
Mild and moderate, with the hills catching more sun and better drainage than the surrounding plain, where most of the bulk-wine vineyards sit.
Terroir & soils
What the vines grow in
Volcanic basalt and tuff in the Classico hills, giving mineral, structured wine; alluvial clay on the plain, giving lighter, simpler wine.
Go deeper
Rules, years & producers
What makes one year better than another follows from the climate here: moderate, with volcanic hills.
A great year
A dry, sunny growing season that lets Garganega ripen fully on the volcanic hillsides while keeping its acidity.
A difficult year
A wet, humid year, particularly hard on the flatter, more fertile plots that already struggle for concentration.
What's grown here
Grapes
Each grape's page links back here.