On the Road with the Grape Guy
PRA Winery Podcast Tie-in
01 Nov 2023- Details
- Category: On the Road with the Grape Guy
(July 2023) ... We sat down with Diego Corradi, the export manager for PRA winery in the Veneto region of Soave to discuss all things Soave and Valpolicella - the white and the red wines of the area. You can listen to our podcast here, but below are some of the highlights and the reviews of the wines we tasted.
PRA is a classical Soave producer, owning 40 hectares and six "crus" of the grape which grows at the higher elevation areas of the region, in volcanic soils. The grape that makes Soave is Garganega and Diego describes it as a very malleable grape, like Chardonnay. The laws for the area state 70% of Soave can be Garganega ... But PRA likes to use 100%. Interesting to note that their Soave was sealed under screwcap, and has been since 2010 - during our interview, we learned that screwcap has not always been allowed, and that it was not possible to use one on a wine bearing the "classico" label until 2015. Now all of PRA's white wines are sealed with a screwcap. But for 5 years this winery was ahead of the curve.
2021 Otto - Soave Classico
You can learn all about the name by listening to the podcast, let it be said here though that it is named after a dog - the rest of the story here. This 100% Garganega sits on fine lees in stainless steel for 6 months, giving the wine a creamy mid-palate before rolling into green apple and minerality on the finish. An easy wine to sip on, especially on a hot afternoon.
We moved on from Soave to talk Valpolicella, something that PRA has only been making since 2006. The wine we tried was "Morandina", the name given to their "cru" that sits on the eastern side at high elevation. That elevation helped explain the bone shaking acidity within the wine.
2021 Morandina Valpolicella
Sour cherry and raspberry fruit co-mingle with red currants and mouth-puckering acidity. Clean and precise, a wine that needs a meal.
To listen to the full interview with Diego of PRA, follow this link.
