Le Fraghe Garganega Camporengo

Matilde Poggi runs this wonderful estate based in the Bardolino appellation, in between Lake Garda and Valpolicella. For many years, her family sold their grapes to larger producers, but today, she is one of Italy’s most respected winemakers, and also the president of the Federazione Italiana Vignaioli Indipendenti (or FIVI, the Italian Federation of Independent Winegrowers) and vice president of the Confédération Européenne des Vignerons Indépendants (or CEVI, the European Confederation of Independent Winegrowers).

She makes a range of wines, and we were quite taken with her Camporengo bottling of Garganega, a grape that also does wonderful things in Soave. Grapes are picked at optimal ripeness, and the wine is fermented in stainless steel and aged on the fine lees until bottling.

It's a lovely and beautifully textured white that showcases notes of ripe peach, pineapple, Meyer lemon, sweet herbs, saline minerality, and juicy acidity. Fleshy and textured on the palate, it balances richness with freshness with ease.