Soave DOC

Italy's most important dry white after Pinot Grigio by volume, and on the volcanic Classico hills one of its best. Garganega gives a pale, medium-bodied wine with pear, yellow apple, chamomile, almond and a stony, smoky mineral line, with modest acidity but a saline, bitter finish that keeps it fresh; the limestone sites give more florality, the basalt sites more smoke. The plain produces neutral supermarket wine; the hills, from Pieropan, Gini, Inama, Suavia, Prà and Coffele, produce whites that age ten years. Cheap to explore and hard to exhaust.