ANSELMI

The Anselmi winery was founded in 1948 by Roberto Anselmi's father. A native of the area, Roberto Anselmi felt an emotional as well as professional commitment to tapping the unrealized potential of the wine he grew up with. Over the past decade, he has been quietly revolutionizing the way Anselmi Soave is made and marketed, transforming it from a pleasant, "easy-drinking" wine into a premium white that has been favorably compared to fine, French Chablis. In 2000 Roberto Anselmi, feeling that Soave's DOC laws promote over-production and mediocre quality, made the bold decision to produce his wines outside of the Soave Appellation.

Roberto Anselmi is widely regarded as one of Italy’s leading white wine producers. Frustrated by the low quality and general lack of ambition in the Soave region, in 2000 he chose to leave the Soave DOC, and his wines are now labelled as IGT Veneto. He takes a quality minded approach, starting in the vineyard with densely planted Guyot-trained vines and corresponding low yields (the typical pergola-trained vines in Soave can produce absolutely heroic yields, and correspondingly dilute wines). Anselmi took over running his family property in the 1980s, and his wines are very impressive in quite a modern, forward style. The San Vicenzo is a favourite of mine: lovely fruit quality unobscured by oak, and at around 8pounds, very good value. Prices for the Foscarino and Capitel Croce are also pretty sane, at around 12pounds, and the sweet I Capitelli is lovely.