Pieropan

In a region where, for decades, cheap and forgettable white wine had been mass-produced for export, one family refused to follow the accepted practice. Based in the medieval hilltop town of Soave in the Veneto region, Pieropan has been producing high-quality wine from this appellation since 1890, and it was Pieropan that proved to the world that Soave is a wine worth paying attention to.

History

The family business was founded by Leonildo Pieropan, a local doctor whose passion for viticulture eventually took precedence over his medical career. In 1901, he purchased his first plot of land, on which part of the ‘Calvarino’ vineyard now stands. His sons, Gustavo and Fausto, carried on the business, and in 1966 the third generation of the Leonildo line, the founder’s grandson, known as Nino, took over the reins after studying oenology and viticulture at the school in Conegliano.

It is Nino who is largely responsible for Pieropan’s current reputation. His idea was simple, yet ahead of its time: to link individual vineyards to the bottle and create wines that reflect the specific interplay between the grape variety, soil and climate of each plot. In 1971, he released ‘Calvarino’, the first single-vineyard Italian white wine. ‘La Rocca’ followed in 1978. Both wines are now regarded as milestones in the history of Italian white wine.

In 2002, Nino stopped using chemical weed control across the entire estate, and in 2008 he began transitioning all production to organic farming and became a co-founder of FIVI, the Italian Federation of Independent Winemakers. He passed away in 2018, and the estate is now jointly managed by his sons Andrea and Dario, both of whom hold degrees in agriculture and oenology.

Vineyards and terroir

Pieropan cultivates 40 hectares in the Soave Classico area, all on hillsides, as well as a further 20 hectares in the Valpolicella region around Tregnago. Pieropan’s two flagship Soave vineyards are situated on fundamentally different soils: Calvario lies on volcanic basalt, which lends the wine mineral clarity and longevity, whilst La Rocca lies on marine limestone, producing wines with greater density and texture.

The new winery, built on a hillside in 2015 and completed by Andrea and Dario following their father’s death, is designed as a gravity-fed facility, clad in local Vicenza stone and hidden from view beneath a hill situated directly adjacent to the walls of Soave’s old town.

Grapes

The Garganega variety forms the basis of all white wines, accounting for between 85 and 90 per cent of the blends, with Trebbiano di Soave making up the remainder. Both varieties are traditional indigenous varieties of this region and the only ones ever used by Pieropan. For Valpolicella reds, the Corvina, Corvinone and Rondinella varieties are grown at Monte Garzon.

Winemaking

The approach has remained unchanged for generations: no added yeasts, temperature-controlled fermentation and minimal intervention in the cellar. The standard Soave Classico is fermented at a temperature of 14 to 18 degrees Celsius in glass-lined concrete tanks, where it is also aged on fine lees with regular bâtonnage for five to nine months, depending on the vintage. The exception is ‘La Rocca’, which is fermented and aged in French oak barrels, this was a radical choice for the Garganega variety when Nino first introduced it in 1978, and remains unusual even today. All the grapes are harvested by hand: Trebbiano is harvested from mid-September, whilst Garganega, which ripens later, is harvested from October onwards.

Wines

The range extends from the entry-level ‘Soave Classico’, a blend of estate-grown Garganega and Trebbiano, to two flagship single-vineyard white wines.

‘Calvarino’ is produced from a 9-hectare plot planted between 1901 and the 1960s; it is a blend of Garganega with a small proportion of Trebbiano di Soave, aged exclusively in glass-lined concrete tanks. ‘La Rocca’ is a 100 percent Garganega from a single 4-hectare vineyard growing on limestone soil, aged in French oak barrels.Both wines are produced only in years when it is deemed appropriate to do so.

The Valpolicella range includes ‘Valpolicella Superiore’, ‘Ripasso’ and ‘Amaro’ from the Monte Garzon vineyard in Tregnago.

The range is rounded off by ‘Le Colombare’, a sweet wine made from late-harvest Soave grapes, produced from dried Garganega berries in exceptional years. T

otal production across the entire range amounts to around 650,000 bottles per year, of which around 65 per cent is exported to 55 countries.