Soave Classico Castel Cerino, Coffele 2021

History
In 1971 Giovanna Visco and her husband Giuseppe decided to retire from teaching to breathe new life into Giovanna’s family’s estate: a property with cellars in the old walled village of Soave that had lain dormant for over 30 years.

Today their children, Alberto and Chiara, are in control of the day-to-day running and are the head and heart of the place. They are fully aware that the ingredients for a great wine come from the land itself. Around 30 hectares of immaculate vineyards are planted in the Soave Classico zone around Castelcerino (200-350m above sea level) on perfectly exposed hillsides.

The wines
The Garganega grape variety from this location is prized for its ripeness and natural acidity when it ripens slowly, allowing for exceptional flavour development. Coffele’s wines often go a step beyond their peers, with the hard work and careful attention to detail that is given to the vineyards. The grapes are all hand-harvested using multiple passes through the vineyards to ensure picking at the perfect moment of ripeness.

This producer is doing a great job, maintaining standards of Soave that some of their neighbours in the area, with much larger resources, would be proud to achieve. The wines are typically high in finesse with delicate mineral notes.

Environmental sustainability
The family have been very innovative in developing locally-relevant solutions to managing environmental sustainability. Rather than using tractors, they use Brogna Sheep of Lessinia, chosen for their close ties to the area, to graze between the vines and on the hillside pastures of the farm. The biodiversity is further increased by the presence of a herd of Alpine chamois goats.

The hilly and mountainous terrain where the estate is located is susceptible to water run-off and erosion. To tackle these challenges, Coffele has worked with the University of Padua to develop the SOiLUTION system project. This is an integrated system of sustainable actions and technologies designed to reduce the risk of erosion and improve soil management. This includes use of laser-equipped drones to map the steep slopes of the vineyard in order to monitor risks like landslides, and the use of specially-selected grasses to reduce the risk of erosion.

Social sustainability
Much of what Coffele does, for example use of dry stone walling is driven also by a desire to contribute to the history of the Soave district, which has been declared a 'historic rural Italian landscape' by the Italian Ministry of Agriculture. Coffele also support a local NGO, Logo Cascina AlbaTerra, which runs a farm which provides job and rehabilitation opportunities to people affected by situations of social, physical and economic hardship.