An elegant and delicate white, to be enjoyed with a good dish based on lake fish, of course, but not only. Here is what we discovered by visiting the Tenuta Le Fornaci of the Tommasi Family Estates Group
The great wines of Veneto they are well known all over the world. They range from evergreen and always-ready-in-the-fridge Prosecco, the best-selling sparkling wine on the entire planet, to absolute excellence like his majestyAmarone, undoubtedly one of the most prestigious – and expensive – reds of the entire Italian wine heritage. Going to sift with more attention the Venetian territory and its surroundings, however, it is possible to come across wines that are undoubtedly less known, but absolutely to be rediscovered, if only as a direct expression of unique native vines. This is the case with the Lugana, elegant white obtained from Turbiana grapes, particularly interesting especially for its extreme versatility. So, to delve a little more into the universe of this wine, we decided to delve into the proposals of Le Fornaci Estate, the signed project Tommasi Family Estates which directly overlooks the shores of Lake Garda.
Lugana, the Doc of the lake
«A fertile plain south of Lake Garda. Vineyards neat and beautiful as paintings. A beneficial and caressing climate. Yesterday “Lucana”, an inhospitable place of woods and marshes, today an airy land, generous and welcoming like a garden . It is with these words of courtly charm that the Lugana Consortium presents us with its territory: a two-faced area, which stretches between the provinces of Brescia and Verona, for a total of over 2000 hectares of vineyards divided into two macro-zones. The first, wider with more tenacious and clayey soils, is substantially flat, and extends along the hinterland between Desenzano and Sirmione, giving the grapes – and therefore the wines – a particular minerality lacustrine. The second, of a more hilly nature, instead extends from the Monumental Tower of San Martino della Battaglia, and is characterized by more sandy soils, with a good presence of gravelly elements. The grapes from this area are generally characterized by a more marked one acidity. In short, the area of origin of the grapes can significantly affect the final peculiarities of Lugana: in the glass, in any case, we find most of the time the typical delicacy of this wine, characterized by gentle citrus notes.
The Fornaci and the evolution of Lugana
The Tommasi family enters the world of Lugana starting from a vine of about 5 hectares in the municipality of Desenzano del Garda, located near San Martino della Battaglia: the name of the estate, immediately baptized Le Fornaci, refers to a archaeological site of the area, which houses – in fact – a rare Roman furnace dating back to the 1st-2nd century AD. In 2013, 2 further plots were acquired, located in different areas of the Lugana Doc: to date, therefore, the estate includes a total of 45 hectares of vineyards, located partly inland and partly towards Lake Garda, at the gates of Sirmione. An expansion that has also brought with it further investments on the front ofwine tourism, with the inauguration on the horizon of a new wine bistro and a new cellar dedicated exclusively to the processing of Turbiana grapes; and which, at the same time, has determined a natural evolution of the wine produced: the result is a Lugana Doc Le Fornaci in continuous improvement, which in its 2019 version offers notes of pineapple, mango, grapefruit, with a sapid and mineral finish that it resists in the mouth, leaving a very pleasant freshness on the palate. "For the future," he anticipates Giancarlo Tommasi, winemaker of the Tommasi Family Estates Group, "we have two new products in the pipeline: Le Fornaci Lugana Doc Riserva version, vintage 2018, and a new Le Fornaci Rosé, which intends to become a premium rosé wine purely dedicated to catering".
How Lugana is paired
Among the main characteristics of Lugana we find without any doubt the versatility: the delicacy of this white, which almost seems to represent all the elegance of the Garda coasts in a glass, means that it can be drunk practically throughout the meal, even starting with the simplest toast at aperitif time. For the rest, as he points out Andrea Bottarel, director of the Lugana Consortium, «we are faced with a wine that obviously marries perfectly the typical dishes of its territory, starting with preparations based on lake fish. But it is perfectly capable of supporting even tastier first courses, risotto, white meats such as chicken or rabbit, and yes, even sea fish, if not excessively processed and seasoned. A very interesting combination, in this sense, can also be that with Japanese cuisine . Or with thehaute cuisine del Garda, as shown by the menu developed by the chef Fabrizio Molterni of the restaurant The Speranzina from Sirmione, and accompanied step by step, course after course by Lugana Le Fornaci: salmon trout tartare alla pizzaiola, complete with key ingredients of the pizza laid on a base of lake fish; risotto with tench jus, capers, lemon and extra virgin olive oil; and zander à la poele, with courgette in butter glaze and red wine sauce.
