This is the time of year to go full-on Italian for lunch or dinner: a glass of this white wine with the first asparagus of the season, cooked till barely crunchy, dribbled with local extra virgin olive oil and sprinkled with a fine layer of chopped, hard-boiled eggs. Served outside on your patio, fire escape, down the block on a park bench– wherever you can revel in the early spring sunshine.
This Vespaiolo wine comes from the Veneto region of Italy, produced by Le Vie Angarano, an organic producer whose vineyards lie along the Brenta river. It’s a cool area in the hills, and the winemaker leaves the wine on the lees to enhance its texture and aromatics. The wine’s aroma is floral with a touch of minerality. On the palate, the wine is very fresh, almost spritzy, with a citric touch of grapefruit appearing on the end palate and lasting through the finish.
Though this is a light wine, wines made with the Veneto’s indigenous vespaiola grape have the capacity to age. This wine is dry, and there is also a sweet style which is made by drying the grapes for several months before pressing — a traditional method for making more concentrated, sweet wines in northern Italy as well as other regions of the world.
Also, you might want to plan a visit to this historic winery when you start traveling again: it is a Unesco World Heritage site, with buildings designed by a famous Italian architect in the late 1500s.
WHO: Le Vie Angarano
WHAT: 100% vespaiola
WHERE: Veneto, Italy
HOW MUCH: $20
RATING: 90
