CANTINA CORTE MAINENTE
Soave, Italy
BIANCO SECCO VERONESE 2022
VARIET Y & TERROIR: 100% Garganega on Calcareous soil
VINEYARD AGE & YIELD: 60 year-old vines & 70-80 hl/ha
FARMING PRACTICES: Organic farming
VINIFICATION & AGING: Direct press, fermented and aged for 1 year in concrete tanks
TOTAL ACIDIT Y & RESIDUAL SUGAR: 4.8 g/L & 3-4 gl/L
ALCOHOL: 13 %
PRODUCTION: 2 700 bottles
“With less than ten hectares of vines, Mainente’s wines are largely unknown outside the region, but with the recent addition of Ugo’s two sons to the Corte family, this is all about to change. Their last vintage have received top marks, and in 2019 Forbes named their Soave one of the “Best Italian Wines of the Year”. Work in the cellar is clean and no-frills with the Mainente brothers preferring concrete over inox, but experimenting with larger casks for certain cuvées. For our opening order, they agreed to let us pick our favorite Soave vineyard from their holdings, and create a bottling exclusive for the US. We chose to declassify it to “Bianco Veronese IGT” to highlight the larger Verona region, over the Byzantine Soave and her 33 crus. Mainente’s Garganega and Trebbiano di Soave vines are planted on steep terrasses overlooking the town and with 60-80 years of vine age, the flavors they coax from the patchwork of terroir of clay, black volcanic fossils and pue, white limestone conjure up a “Steelier” Bourgogne Blanc, but with the flavors of white melon, orange zest and bitter almond, so prized in the whites of the misty Po Valley.
Giorgio Gioco was the famous chef and owner of 12 Apostoli in Verona whose handwriting adorned Quinterelli’s original hand-drawn labels. Giorgio and his wife Jole’s 300-year-old restaurant is still considered the pinnacle of classic Veronese gastronomy. He is also a longtime friend of Ugo Mainente, and at special family gatherings, Ugo spends four days making Gioco’s recipe for Polenta e Bacalà, a classic dish of the Veneto, and a brilliant march with his insanely delicious Garganega-based white. After sharing this dish with Ugo’s son Davide this year, we agreed to design a label for our US bottling that would pay homage to this handmade spirit of their work.” -Lyle Railsback