Italy’s Lugana Wine Gains Official Superior DOC Status After Aging Trial

Preparations were underway to say farewell to September 1998 when, in the countryside stretching from Peschiera to Desenzano along the morainic hills, the vintners exchanged wide smiles.

A few days earlier, the Ministry of Agriculture had given the green light for these very vintners to attempt aging their wine from their grapes. The “Lugana”, the white wine produced in this small land south of Lake Garda, which has been on the tables of its enthusiasts with a DOC label since 1967, could, in theory, have a superior sibling.

The Superior Lugana

Just last October, the twelve months stipulated by the regulations for bottling and selling the Lugana reserve from the vineyards had passed, and now, we can taste the first Lugana with a controlled designation of origin as a superior, as it will be called.

The moment of truth has arrived, and those who for years argued that this wine could be aged longer in barrels and consumed over a longer period will finally have the satisfaction of demonstrating its refinement and significance.

It will be up to the individual companies belonging to the Consorzio di tutela to decide if and when to put it on the market, but the initial plans for the first tens of thousands of bottles were made with the grape selection that took place twelve months ago.

“The exceptional quality of Lugana, comments Francesco Ghiraldi, President of the Consorzio di tutela, freshly returned from the International Wine Festival in Merano, is its recognizability. It is a white wine that is already refined by nature and continues to be so — not easy and requiring effort.”

The choice of the Consorzio to promote the superior version is a sign of the journey this wine has made over the years and a milestone in a process that all wineries have undertaken to refine their products.

“It was the Lugana enthusiasts themselves,” Ghiraldi continues, “who over the years suggested the idea of aging our wine.”

“For us, opting for quality over quantity has never been a problem, as we are already a niche wine and strongly believe in this policy.”

Initial estimates suggest a production of around one hundred thousand bottles out of a total of three million, which will serve to test the market, as the recent and upcoming harvests will allow individual wineries to adjust their strategies, choosing whether or not to shift more towards a higher-quality product and reduce their quantities.

“And this is certainly the main challenge for all wineries,” explains Carlo Veronese, a Lugana producer used to consuming within the year what they bottle.

The superior version represents a new challenge for all of us because the product is fundamentally new and must be discovered.

Like many other wine regions, we will also need to start thinking in different time horizons and choose, over time, what significance to give to the wine that from now on will represent the reserve of our grapes.

The anticipation continues to grow, but only a few days remain before the superior Lugana reaches the tables of all its connoisseurs.