The Food Maven Diary
[Archives]

[Previous Entry] [Diary Home] [Next Entry]

01/11/2002 Archived Entry: "Wine Buy: Zenato Lugana"

This week’s wine buy is an Italian white that goes against the stereotype of Italian whites. Instead of the typical, cleanly made, crisp, relatively light-bodied, but fairly boring white wine, Zenato Lugana 2000 has a big bouquet, rich mouth feel, and complex flavors. Carol Berman, Food Talk sommelier, goes so far as to call it a white wine for cold weather.

What’s that about? It’s the type of white you might even serve with meat. Certainly, it can hold up to roast chicken, veal dishes, full-flavored cheeses, and fish such as salmon and tuna.

It is also a great bargain at $10.99, perhaps less at some stores.

Due to the vineyard’s particular privileged location on Lake Garda, near where Soave is also grown from the same grape variety, the Garganega grapes for this Lugana are able to realize their full potential. Garganega can, indeed, produce lackluster wines, as so many from this area are.

Along with the location of the vineyards, modern production techniques help extract the most character from the Garganega, making Zenato Lugana a lush, full-bodied wine that would make any Chardonnay drinker happy.

Carol also recommends Zenato’s Valpolicello and Amarone, two red wines from the Veneto. Valpolicello is the lighter one, Amarone the big, important one.