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Cassiodoro
A glorious dessert wine from the hills of Soave
Simon Loftus uncovers a remarkable wine from Italy.
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"The telephone call from friends, telling me about an unknown wine discovered while on holiday, used to fill my heart with dread. I would invite them into the Adnams tasting room, sample their bottle alongside one or two similar wines that we already stocked, and stand back to watch the reaction. Deprived of the carefree holiday sun, their treasured discovery seemed to fade in the glass.
So imagine my trepidation when I asked Alastair Marshall to try a bottle of Recioto that I brought back from a bed & breakfast place in the hills of Soave, where my wife and I had stayed on a recent trip to Italy. Alastair gritted his teeth, but agreed to look at it together with Rob Chase and Sarah Groves. And as they tasted, I saw smiles of pleasure. So now, for your delight, it is here - and I want to tell you the story.
La Rosa & Leone is hard to find, hidden behind a high wall and tall iron gate at the edge of the village of Colognola ai Colli – but when the gate creaks open you catch the first glimpse of a romantic, over-grown garden, filled with trees and columns and ruins and flowers, and then you discover that the garden is shared by two nineteenth century houses, in one of which the sisters live and the other of which is occupied by their guests.
Two of the three sisters were there when we stayed, Valeria and Giovanna Poli, and between them they told us their history. Their father (an industrialist from Verona who died in his fifties) had bought the house that we stayed in as a place to escape the women of his family and immerse himself in his books. When his wife protested, he bought the house next door and created for her this elaborate garden - and also, seemingly by chance, acquired two small vineyards; one across the road from the house and one at the bottom of the garden. After his death the sisters stayed on here, not knowing what to do with his house until they hit upon the notion of offering its three spacious bedrooms to those, like us, looking for somewhere interesting to stay.
So we slept in luxury between the finest fine linen sheets (that had once formed part of their mother’s dowry), took breakfast overlooking the garden and explored the large house from top to bottom. Which was how I discovered the cache of wine – and another story emerged.
I knew that the name of the place was intended to honour the sisters’ parents (his Lion of Venice, her Rose of Lombardy) so when I found a book, La Rosa e Leone, lying on a desk near the wine, I picked it up expecting to learn more about their history. But instead I found myself reading about Rosa Luxemburg and Leon Trotsky, and began to realise that Valeria was a frustrated revolutionary. This longing to find her own way of doing things seems to have prompted her decision to become a winemaker.
In 2004 she decided that the sisters should no longer sell their grapes to the local co-operative and for three consecutive glorious vintages, until the labour became too much for her, she selected the best, late harvested bunches, which she dried on racks for several weeks until the sugars were concentrated, the flavours complex and it was time to crush and ferment them. Valeria had the help of a local oenologist, but she followed, almost step by step, the instructions of the 6th century agriculturist, Cassiodorus. He it was who first delimited and regulated the vineyards of Soave, and it is in his honour that Valeria named her wine, Cassiodoro.
But alas, that was that – for Valeria had no means of selling the Recioto that she had so lovingly made, apart from a few cases in her immediate locality. There it stayed, slowly maturing, in a cool room at the bottom of her father’s house, until I discovered it - and was amazed.
As soon as I took my first sip, in that beautiful ghost of a garden, I knew that I should try to persuade Adnams to buy some. Valeria agreed to an astonishingly generous price, Alastair Marshall worked wonders to get it here in time for Christmas and now you have the chance to enjoy it - as this wonderful wine deserves".
2005 Cassiodoro, Recioto di Soave Classico (Azienda Agricola Mezzomonte)
½ bottle £9.99
The most enticing apricot gold; aromas of conserved fruit, angelica, honey; flavours that combine a luscious, lingering sweetness with delicious fruit acidity. This is a wine to sip with toasted almonds, savour with desserts, relish on its own.
Simon Loftus
If you are planning a visit to the area between Verona and Vicenza, I strongly recommend a stay at La Rosa e Leone.
Virginia Poli, La Rosa e Leone, via Trieste 56, 37030 Colognola ai Colli, VR, Italy
Tel: (00 39) 0457 650123 email: vvpoli@libero.it
For further details see www.sawdays.co.uk/accommodation/italy. Alastair Sawday is a long-standing friend of mine, who shares our concern for ‘green’ issues, and his recommended places to stay are wonderful alternatives to the usual hotels.
