Consorzio Garda Classico
Viale della Bornata, 110 - 25123 Brescia - Italy
tel +39 030 364755 - fax +39 030 364775
info@gardaclassico.it
Viale della Bornata, 110 - 25123 Brescia - Italy
tel +39 030 364755 - fax +39 030 364775
info@gardaclassico.it
| The Consortium | The Territory | Wine | Winemakers |
Wines Italy . The Territory
Lake Garda Valtenesi wine region
The lake and wine – millennia of shared history.
The traditional Garda Bresciano DOC, which is now a part of the Garda and Garda Classico DOCs, includes most of the Brescian provincial territory. It winds along the sinuous coast of the lake, and in the west touches on the southernmost tip of Lake Idro before moving down into the Valtenesi, the heart of the production area.
The areas in which Garda Classico is produced vary greatly in terms of geological composition and they benefit from a particularly mild microclimate influenced by the lake and good ventilation – ideal conditions for growing well-balanced grapes, as well as olive and citrus trees.
Of all the grapes grown in this area, groppello is the most representative; it is a red grape, and is considered an oenological rarity because it is grown only in the Valtenesi, on the slopes of the splendid hills surrounding Lake Garda.
There are three important varieties: groppello gentile, groppello di Mocasina and groppello di Santo Stefano.
This grape forms the base of all the red and rosé wines, obviously including the homonymous Groppello. The production area of San Martino della Battaglia overlaps in part with that of Garda Classico, including either completely or in part the municipalities of Sirmione, Desenzano, Lonato and Pozzolegno. It covers the flatlands and the morainic circles south of Lake Garda where the tocai friulano grape, used to a required minimum of 80% in the tocai wine, has found its ideal environment.
History
Men and wine have been in the Garda territory since prehistoric times. The oldest man-made plough was found on the morainic hills of Lake Garda – where the wild grape (and probably wine as well), was known five thousand years before Christ. It was however the Etruscans in the fifth century B.C. who introduced vine cultivation in the Brescian territory replacing the “domesticated” variety with the wild.
The Romans settled in the area of Brescia as well, and there have been repeated archaeological finds at Sirmione testifying to the fame of the city since the time of Caesar. The poet Catullus who made his home here, sang the praises of the “retico” wine of the Garda Riviera.
In the 8th century B.C. the lands of the Roman state and those of the Barbarian and Longobard Kings were given or effeofed to the great monasteries. Inventories of their lands reveal long lists of vineyards and considerable income from wine and wine presses. Andrea Bacci, doctor to Pope Sixtus V and botanical professor in Rome from 1567 to 1600 offers us the most complete and enthusiastic description of Brescian viniculture of the 16th century. “The Brescian territory surpasses the entire Transpadana region in the fecundity of every fruit, but particularly wines”
The lake and wine – millennia of shared history.
The traditional Garda Bresciano DOC, which is now a part of the Garda and Garda Classico DOCs, includes most of the Brescian provincial territory. It winds along the sinuous coast of the lake, and in the west touches on the southernmost tip of Lake Idro before moving down into the Valtenesi, the heart of the production area.
The areas in which Garda Classico is produced vary greatly in terms of geological composition and they benefit from a particularly mild microclimate influenced by the lake and good ventilation – ideal conditions for growing well-balanced grapes, as well as olive and citrus trees.
Of all the grapes grown in this area, groppello is the most representative; it is a red grape, and is considered an oenological rarity because it is grown only in the Valtenesi, on the slopes of the splendid hills surrounding Lake Garda.
There are three important varieties: groppello gentile, groppello di Mocasina and groppello di Santo Stefano.
This grape forms the base of all the red and rosé wines, obviously including the homonymous Groppello. The production area of San Martino della Battaglia overlaps in part with that of Garda Classico, including either completely or in part the municipalities of Sirmione, Desenzano, Lonato and Pozzolegno. It covers the flatlands and the morainic circles south of Lake Garda where the tocai friulano grape, used to a required minimum of 80% in the tocai wine, has found its ideal environment.
History
Men and wine have been in the Garda territory since prehistoric times. The oldest man-made plough was found on the morainic hills of Lake Garda – where the wild grape (and probably wine as well), was known five thousand years before Christ. It was however the Etruscans in the fifth century B.C. who introduced vine cultivation in the Brescian territory replacing the “domesticated” variety with the wild.
The Romans settled in the area of Brescia as well, and there have been repeated archaeological finds at Sirmione testifying to the fame of the city since the time of Caesar. The poet Catullus who made his home here, sang the praises of the “retico” wine of the Garda Riviera.
In the 8th century B.C. the lands of the Roman state and those of the Barbarian and Longobard Kings were given or effeofed to the great monasteries. Inventories of their lands reveal long lists of vineyards and considerable income from wine and wine presses. Andrea Bacci, doctor to Pope Sixtus V and botanical professor in Rome from 1567 to 1600 offers us the most complete and enthusiastic description of Brescian viniculture of the 16th century. “The Brescian territory surpasses the entire Transpadana region in the fecundity of every fruit, but particularly wines”