They don’t only consider Lugana as a successful wine. They think this wine is a kind of philosophy, a way of life to deepen from day to day to reach the goal to constantly improve the quality of production.
In short, for the Zenato family, at the head of Le Morette winery in Peschiera del Garda, to produce wine also means embarking on a path of constant research on the vineyard, and in most of all on the particular Trebbiano variety cultivated in the area which took the name of Turbiana.
“My first studies on this issue have started in 2001 with my thesis at the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Milan – explains Fabio Zenato, at the top with his brother Paolo of this reality by 30 hectares of vineyard divided into two estates , for a total production of 400 000 bottles -. On that occasion, it was shown that the Trebbiano di Lugana has elements of genetic differentiation than other varieties belonging to the family of Trebbiano”. In 2011, after further studies, the official name Turbiana was included in the production rules: and today the Consortium is developing a project for the identification and registration of new clones that also involves Le Morette for the part concerning the vivvarium.
There is also this strong technical expertise at the base of the Lugana produced by the family, and particularly in the three facets of the increasingly celebrated Garda Lake white wine recently presented at Vinitaly in new vintages, beginning with Lugana Mandolara 2014. The Benedictus, the fruit of a slightly delayed vintage and a wine-making with indigenous yeasts, is however certainly more complex, while the Riserva (with a minimum aging of two years) completes the range with a picture of particular structure and so much potential still to be expressed, in deference to the now recognized longevity of the typology. Even the Cepage, a sparkling wine, is produced Turbiana grapes 100%, even if Zenato has chosen not to present it as a Doc wine. These wines are produced in the new winery, born on the base of a particularly ambitious project and inaugurated in 2013 with the goal of providing the company with a new, modern and technologically advanced home to envisage new scenarios in the increasing quality for the Lugana of the future.
THE BOTTLE
Try the Mandolara 2014: this is surely the most fresh, immediate and accessible of the Lugana by Le Morette, yet it already presents itself with a pleasant softness and roundness that speak volumes about the hypothetical doubts about the results of vintage 2014, that in the area of Lugana presented objectively difficulties, but now is becoming to reveal plesant suprises.
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