Wine: Speri: Valpolicella Classico Superiore “Sant’Urbano” DOC

Veneto

The Veneto is a region with enormous potential and ranks from year to year in the top 3 of Italy’s largest producers, along with Sicily and Apulia. And while the potential for high quality wines exist, much of the region has been driven by cooperatives that have developed large export markets. Yet it is hard to generalize the region as there are many small, proud producers making world-class wines from native varieties. In the hills and provinces surrounding Verona, there are 2 very important movements. Soave is the most popular of Italian whites and has just earned the DOCG status. Yet, controversy exists as many artisan producers feel the rules governing the DOCG do not go far enough insuring the quality standards that Soave can aspire too. As a result, some growers have opted to retain the DOC as they feel the DOCG is not strong enough to protect the integrity of what Soave can and should be in regards to excellence. Much like Soave, the red wines from Valpolicella have long been associated with major cooperatives producing bulk wines. But here too one finds small, family producers focused on quality. And like the debate found within the Soave DOCG, many top producers feel the DOC for Valpolicella and Amarone do not go far enough to insure first-rate wines. While the debate regarding the rules for each category continues, the strides made by various, independent producers demonstrates the merit for elevating the standards for each zone. For several more dollars, one can experience a far superior wine, which in turn makes it hard to understand spending money for the lesser wines produced by the coops. Just as Amarone and Soave are traditional wines made with native varieties, Prosecco is a lightly sparkling wine produced with indigenous grapes from the hills north of Venice. It is a wine usually made in the Charmat method, the best examples hail from the vineyards around Conegliano and Valdobbiadene. Prosecco is growing in popularity in North America and makes a wonderful aperitif or wine for enjoying with a group of friends—no special occasion needed!

Speri

The name Valpolicella comprises the Italian word for “valley”, ‘valle’ or ‘val’. The Valpolicella appellation, however, is not so much a single valley as a number of small valleys fanning out towards the hills behind Verona. Its wonderful climate, abundant sources of water and gently rolling landscape have made this a densely inhabited territory throughout the centuries. Classico is the Valpolicella appellation’s historical core, covering a mere fifth of the DOC’s total territory: select, elevated terrain on the Alpine foothills, enjoying a temperate climate you would not expect at this northerly latitude.
The Speris’ presence in this heartland of fine winemaking goes back to 1874, and the family is in its fifth generation. Today, proprietary surface under vine totals over 148 acres (i.e. 60 hectares) in the finest Classico districts: Fumane, Negrar, San Pietro in Cariano.
The four Speri brothers (and now, their children, who make up the family’s fifth generation) are a shining example of the values and strengths, even today – in fact, all the more so in this age of huge, impersonal conglomerates – of an ancient culture, rooted in the family and the soil. Successive generations have gradually expanded the estate yet were careful to keep it all in the family: Nonno Benedetto, his son Sante, the latter’s four children and now their children have looked after each detail personally, from vineyard to bottle. The fourth generation, in the 1960s and 1970s, invested heavily in clonal selection, state-of-the-art equipment, ever-higher quality criteria. These are watershed years, when the Speris’ in-depth research comes to a head and the brothers decide to vinify each vineyard individually for all wines and not just Amarone. The vineyards themselves are divided into distinct crus comprising La Roverina (now over 24 acres, i.e. 9.8 hectares), Sant’Urbano (47 acres, i.e. 19 hectares), and La Roggia (24 acres).
Carlo Speri will tell you that the vineyard has always been foremost in the Speri philosophy: “the local heritage in terms of terroir is so exceptional, we have always and exclusively grown native Valpolicella clones. We believe that these alone constitute the appellation’s most authentic expression. Our ultimate objective – a pretty ambitious one! – is that of achieving perfect harmony of the soil and its vines.” Throughout the property, the indigenous Corvina, Rondinella and Molinara are planted with a much higher density than the appellation’s average, and a training system specifically devised by the Speris to lower crops and enhance exposure and concentration: the “small, open pergola” (pergoletta aperta) in lieu of the area’s traditional pergola veronese. Moreover, every grape going into the Speri wines (totaling 350,000 bottles yearly) is estate-owned and estate-grown.
NOTE: The end result of the Speris’ great respect for the environment is their CERTIFIED ORGANIC methods.

Amarone is the king of Veronese wines, combining power and softness, evolving to Port-like lusciousness over three decades or more, awesome with grandeur and depth. It starts off like Valpolicella, but select bunches of Corvina grapes are lengthily dried on racks after the harvest, achieving greater concentration. Speri Amarone is only released in select vintages, and is 70% Corvina, 25% Rondinella, 5% Corvinone, from c. 16-year-old vines.

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