Sampling the wines of Lake Garda

Before my trip to Lake Garda I had done some digging around on the internet as I wanted to visit a couple of wineries whilst away. I was pleased to come across promotional material from the Lombardy and Veneto regions indicating they had well established wine trails to follow around their regions. However, as we found out, these were completely different from the kind of wine tourism you come across in Tuscany or California as very few accepted visitors. We did manage to find from the tourist office that a number of them did a “happy hour” on a Friday evening where for a small fee of 5 euros you could taste an extended range of wines along with bite size local food samples. However most of these took place at fairly industrial or retail looking premises rather than set in vineyards so we gave this a miss

We did spend a very enjoyable and instructive afternoon at Azienda Vitivinicola Redaedelli de Zinis where the staff were extremely friendly and instructive. As well as getting to taste their wines we were also given a tour of the cellars. It was a coincidence their Chiaretto won a bronze medal at the IWSC and that my one day of judging on the competition back in April was on Italian wines although none were from the Lombardy region.

We also visited the shop of Guerrieri Rizzardi where, right in the middle of Bardolino town, they have a vineyard. Although unable to visit the vineyard as it was closed that day, it was good to learn about their wines. I found their 2007 DOC Bardolino to be a bright almost vivid garnet with aromas of cherries and redcurrants with a pleasant acidity underlying the strawberry and redcurrant flavours. Soft tannins made this a very easy drinking and refreshing wine to drink. Made from the same grapes as a Valpolicella it was altogether a much lighter style which I was told is simply down to the type of soils although I'm sure the climate had something to do with it also. Their wines are being shown for the first time at next week's trade Definitive Italian tasting event in London.

I was also struck by how many of even the simplest of cafes had a complete range of local wines usually around 2.50 to 3 euros per glass. Now if only our pubs and wine bars could match those prices.............