2018 Soave Classico La Rocca
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Tasting notes
Quite deep gold for a 2018. Smells of gorse blossom and buttered toast and angelica and bay flowers. I hold the glass a couple of centimetres from my nose and the perfume keeps soaring: yuzu and bergamot and passion fruit. I've barely put it to my lips and the first impression is broad, rich, tightly controlled yet explosively athletic power and beauty. A danseur. But then the acidity fills the mouth and the wine shapeshifts; it's racy, almost frozen-in-a-moment still, and it’s a chandelier splitting bright light into shards, into glittering rainbows. The wine explodes, fills the mouth in a crescendo of flavour and structure and texture. Quite stunning. Florals and almost coconutty herbs. Long and almost bewilderingly complex. Is Soave one of the most underestimated wines in the world? It will probably be beautiful long after the date I have suggested. (TC)
Critic scores
Average Score
Richard Hemming MW, jancisrobinson.com
Tamlyn Currin, jancisrobinson.com
More reviews and scores
Ripe stone fruit with very attractive and well-integrated oak spice. Finishes with a bitter-almond note that seems pleasingly typical for Soave. Moderate acidity, well balanced with quite full body. That bitter character works really well, giving a nutty, green-olive sort of persistence. (RH)
There’s a honeyed sweetness mixed with candied ginger and hints of sour melon that keeps you coming back to the 2018 Soave Classico La Rocca over and over again. It’s deeply textural and savory in character, with a silky, almost oily feel giving way to ripe apple with saline minerality that adds a bit of tactile grip. The finish goes on and on, buzzing with residual acids and spice. Very nice.