Leaving Verona is always sad. It’s a city I love, visit as often as I can, and I wish I could spend more time in it. Onward and upward.
We head directly east on the awful A4 autostrada to the town of San Bonifacio in the Soave zone for a visit with Stefano Inama, arguably the most entertaining and interesting character I know in the Italian wine business. He’s deeply smart, entrepreneurial and committed to making a great bottle of wine from a
long-underappreciated wine region. Stefano is a no-bullshit guy – everything is directed at making the best possible wine from what he has at hand. His winery is a brutally efficient piece of machinery made for one thing only – making high-quality wine. There is no pretty barrel room, no vaulted tasting room – only rows of gleaming tanks, impossibly clean, and rows of barrels in an open temperature-controlled warehouse, so as to make cleaning, racking and topping off as easy and efficient as possible.
“All these wineries building beautiful structures, renovating, making an “architectural statement,” paving the cellar with hand-cut Tuscan marble,” he says. “Does this really make the wine better?” Good question. Ostensibly, how can it? The truth is in the bottle.
Other quips: “we have stricken the words ‘urgent’ and ‘emergency’ here at the winery.” “The first step to making great wine is to fire your accountant.” My favorite was along the lines of “Every time you touch a wine during the winemaking process, you can only take something away.” This speaks to his non-interventionist ideas about the process, as well as the importance of concentrating on the farming side: you have to have great fruit to make great wine. The winery’s design follows from this: everything set up so as to make an ideal state of winemaking possible. Great guy. Lovely wines.
Stefano sends us off with a few samples of his wines to the Enoteca in Monteforte d’Alponi for lunch – we’re the only English-speaking people in the place. From here, we drive up to Bolzano, the main city of the Alto Adige, our base for the next three nights.
2008 Inama, Soave Classico. Nectarine, flowers, apricot. Very rich and fruity nose, minerals, on the palate, orangy citrus, nuts, this is an amazingly complex Soave. Hints of almond and shale on the finish. Lovely length, a hint of tart on the finish makes you sit up straight, very clean and lovely citrusy finish as the wine opens. 3.0+ All stainless fermentation and vinification.
2008 Inama, Soave Classico, Vigneti di Foscarino. Nectarine, apricot, mineral, some creaminess, lots of mineral. Rich on the palate, long crisp apricotty finish. Long finish, hints of cream, some vanilla, sees fermentation in old oak barrels. Lovely. 3.0-
2007 Inama, Carmenere Piu. Merlot/Carmenere (30/70) blend. Soft pepper and plum aromas. Small amounts of vanilla and spices, this is very harmonious, good balance, lovely dark fruit, and minerals (again!) Old barriques give a hint of vanilla and cream, fine tannins, very smooth, long blueberry and licorice flavors. Really lovely sweet and smooth finish, long fine tannins, beautiful. 3.0+ Drink 2012-2017
2006 Inama, Oratorio di San Lorenzo. 100% carmenere. Black pepper, dark chocolate, hint of green pepper, cracked black pepper, lots of deep plums and cassis and blackberry. Long sweet tannins, really lovely fruit, just seems a bit of an awkward stage – knobby knees and sharp elbows, a fabulous little burst of black fruit as it goes down, then long tannins, dry but ripe. Holds great acids and structure, very fresh, very intense cassis and brambly berries. 5-6000 bottles total. 4.0+, will improve. Older vines will help, these are only on their third vintage!! Drink 2014-2026
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