Where to start when it comes to Venetian wine

Whether you’re visiting Italy or imbibing at home, Laura Zavan unpacks the region’s viticultural intricacies in her handy book Venice Cult Recipes.

With its favourable climate, carefully maintained traditions, suitable soil and vine craft, the Venice region has recently become Italy’s largest wine producer. The traditional varieties are rondinella, molinara, corvina veronese and raboso for the reds, garganega, prosecco, verduzzo and trebbiano for the whites.

Valpolicella is one of the most famous reds. Light and fruity, it should be drunk fairly young. From the refermentation of this wine on the lees of amarone wines comes the ripasso, a much more structured and complex wine that is particularly enjoyed with meat-based secondi piatti, risotto with sausage and polenta.

The drier, richer and more powerful amarone, and the amazing, sweet and opulent recioto, are wines for ageing. One, with its strong personality, is made for autumn dishes like poultry, mature cheeses and cured meats, the other, sweet and intense, can be saved for the end of a meal or for fruit-based pastries and biscuits. The Vaona family estate, 10km from Verona, maintains its vineyards in keeping with the traditional methods.

Alongside Vicenza is Gambellara, a village where the native garganega variety yields superb white wines. The truest and most surprising expression of the terroir is found in the cellar of Angiolino Maule, whose white masieri, sassaia, and pico wines reflect all of the natural forces. These well-structured wines go perfectly with cicheti, meatless antipasti, fish and seafood risottos and vegetable risottos.

For a more classic white that is fresh and young, try the soave classico from the Pieropan family in Soave (Verona), where the local garganega and trebbiano varieties make this wine a perfect all-purpose partner for the traditional dishes of the region: artichokes, pumpkin flowers, sardines, risotto and even desserts such as fritole.

For biscuits and dry cakes such as fregolotta, zaletti, focaccia and pinza, the sweet white torcolato will evoke notes of honey, dried fruit, almond and vanilla. The production area is Breganze, north of Vicenza, where a handful of wine growers ensure the continuity of this beverage in line with the traditions.

A very special mention goes to one of the rare wines from the Venice lagoon: the orto di Venezia. Made from a blend of very old Italian varieties (vermentino, fiano and Istrian malvasia), it’s a minerally white wine that is especially expressive of its terroir and it is a perfect match with the typical dishes of the lagoon based on crustaceans, fish, artichokes and asparagus.

It is closely followed by the last-born, the venissa from the Bisol family cellars. After 10 years of research, this winemaking family, already well known for its exceptional prosecco, gives us a unique white wine, the fruit of a local variety, the Venetian dorona grown in the heart of the lagoon on the Tenuta Venissa estate on Mazzorbo Island (connected to Burano). Superb with bigoli and antipasti with prawns, scampi and crab, this nectar, fermented for a year-and-a-half like a red wine, is produced in a very limited quantity.

The province of Treviso, north of Venice, is the home of prosecco, a dry sparkling white wine. It’s a wine with a slightly aromatic perfume, sometimes with almond notes, it is excellent both as an aperitif and as a sparkling table wine. In addition to being one of the main ingredients of the famous Venetian aperitif, spritz, prosecco goes very well with soups, pasta-based primi piatti, fresh cheeses, duck, chicken and rabbit. The wine cellar of the Gregoletto family, between the hills of Valdobbiadene, Conegliano and Vittorio Veneto, has for centuries cultivated vines that produce a prosecco of exceptional quality.

More and more winemakers are taking the “risk” of producing natural wines: no interventions on the vine. This is the origin of the organic sur lie proseccos produced by Casa Belfi at San Polo di Piave. It’s a “winemaker’s wine” that partners well with gnocchi with duck ragù, pork roasted in milk and baccalà.

Veneto shares its wealth of grape varieties with the neighbouring region of Friuli–Venezia Giulia. Sometimes the same varieties are found there, but also other typical local varieties – tocai friulano, malvasia, ribolla for the whites, refosco and schioppettino for the reds.

The verduzzo friulano and ribolla whites of the I Clivi winery combine warm and complex aromas with a freshness and palatability that’s characteristic of the Galea and Brazan hills. These are wines to try with local pastries, ripened and veined cheeses, and shellfish.

The organic reds of Marina Sgubin, between Gorizia and Udine, are wines of great character, traditionally light and fruity and becoming more full bodied with age. To pair with sausages and polenta, cotechino and game.

These regions not only produce excellent wines but also a legendary eau-de-vie: grappa. Traditionally made in northern Veneto, at Bassano del Grappa, this digestif is the result of distilling the marcs of local grapes. It is enjoyed after a good meal, by itself or to flavour a good strong coffee.

Venice Cult Recipes (mini) by Laura Zavan, $33, published by Murdoch Books.

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