Anselmi San Vincenzo 2023

In 1976, young Roberto Anselmi purchased his first vineyard in Soave Classico. He locked into a vineyard into a region that was at the time internationally known for mass-producing inexpensive wines that were pouring into the American market. But Anselmi had a different plan – a grand vision to restore dignity to the land where his grandfather and father had once made wine before him.

By the 1990s, he had abandoned traditional pergola training and converted his vineyards to Guyot and permanent cordon (cordone speronato) training – techniques his peers thought were absolutely crazy at the time. He meticulously experimented with pruning strategies to lower yields and deliver concentrated, expressive fruit. In the cellar, he introduced temperature control and modern technology to preserve the grapes’ natural vibrancy. People used to walk by his vineyards just to see what crazy thing he might be doing that day.

But in 2000, Anselmi did something unheard of: he wrote an open letter to the Soave Classico consortium announcing he was quitting the association to free himself from their restrictive regulations. It meant giving up the prestigious Soave name that he had spent nearly 3 decades building, but it allowed him to blend local Garganega with small amounts of Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc to create a richer, more complex wine that he had been tinkering with on the side.