A knockout wine at a fabulous price, the Monte Tondo Soave Classico is a wine that we can’t recommend highly enough. Coming from the previously overlooked yet historic region of Soave Classico, this 100% Garganega wine from organically farmed grapes offers attractive fruit character, a round mouthfeel, a mineral backbone and seamless drinkability. Riper than you might expect, the nose gives hints of apricot, orange peel, lemon verbena and wet stone. The palate is so harmonious, this is a wine that you can sit with and pick out the orange zest, ripe peach, apricot and mineral notes, or you can let it slip down and simply ponder how on earth they made it so good. The wine spends up to 12 hours on the skins before fermentation which is quite a while for a white wine of this kind. It’s a testament to the quality of the grapes because only with good grapes can you impart fruitiness into the wine without any bitterness. Most white wines will spend no time in contact with the skins at all. But they make all of the difference here and help the wine taste so fleshy and moreish. Cold fermentation temperature and only stainless steel vats preserve the pure fruit character and you may notice some effect from the lees contact. The dead yeast cells help add body to the wine and, combined with the concentrated fruit, give the wine its balance and drinkability. Monte Tondo are a historic producer based in the heart of the stunning Soave region in Veneto. Gino Magnabosco runs this family estate which produces an array of Soave wines at different quality levels. We love showing these wines to people as they are possibly some of the most undervalued in the world. Try some Soave for yourself and see if you agree.
