2020 Balestri Valda ‘Sengialta’ Soave Classico

Region: Veneto  |  Country: Italy  | Type: White Wine

About The Wine

Sengialta is 70% old-vine Garganega and 30% reintroduced Trebbiano di Soave. Organic. Spontaneously fermented in stainless steel followed by 22 months in 2000 litre old oak on fine lees. A sublime, complex, age-worthy white wine. 

Review

“Spicy and floral, the 2020 Soave Classico Sengialta opens in the glass with an inviting blend of crushed apples, crystalized ginger and sweet smoke. This is silky and round, nearly opulent in feel, with a core of saline minerals and brisk acids to balance. A salty flourish punctuates the finish, along with hints of lime, creating a savory yet still remarkably fresh impression. Outstanding purity and poise mixed with ripe fruit make the Sengialta a pleasure to taste.”

- Eric Guido, Vinous

About Balestri Valda

Balestri Valda is a family-run estate led by Laura Rizzotto, a beekeeper and passionate advocate for biodiversity, who cares for her organically farmed vineyards and olive groves with dedication. She cultivates Garganega and the native Trebbiano di Soave in basalt-rich soils at 180–300 metres above sea level. At the heart of the estate is their small slice of the Sengialta cru whose name – taken from the local word sengio – pays tribute to the vineyard’s dark volcanic soils. 

Balestri Valda’s vineyards are situated within a large volcanic/tectonic basin delimited to the West by the tectonic line of Castelvero and to the East by the Schio-Vicenza line.

There is a close relationship between basalt soils and the rich flavors and balance that are to be found in the wines that come from them. Basalts are volcanic rocks that were formed by successive series of eruptions that went on for three geological cycles, all of them in a sub-marine environment. These eruptions gave rise to volcanoclastic products of colours varying from gray to yellow and reddish, depending on their area of formation and degree of oxidation. 

In our soils there is not only basalt; this black stone is in fact mixed with white limestone, creating an amalgam of minerals from which the vines are able to benefit. The limestone deposits are what is left of ancient sea beds; these sediments rich in calcium carbonate, depositing themselves at the bottom of the sea, trapped animals and shells, which we can still find today in fossils of very curious and varied kinds.

Snapshot

Region: Soave 

Country: Italy 

Alcohol: 13.5%

Vintage: 2020

Size: 750ml

Closure: Cork under seal

Variety: 70% Garganega, 30% Trebbiano