Collection: Veneto: Roberto Anselmi

In 1976, when maverick winemaker Roberto Anselmi purchased his first vineyard and first began bottling his own wines in Soave Classico, the appellation was wildly popular in the U.S. But it was known mostly for the its mass-production, inexpensive but low-quality wines.

From the outset, the young winemaker was on a mission to revive the land where his grandfather and father had made wine before him. By the 1990s, he had abandoned traditional pergola training and converted his vineyards to Guyot training. Organic farming was introduced and he experimented with pruning strategies and growing techniques to lower yields and deliver better quality fruit. In the cellar, he introduced temperature control and other modern technology.

Originally, Roberto had approached the Soave Consorzio to negotiate a reduction in the permissible yields in an attempt to increase region-wide quality.  After decades of efforts and communications, the Consorzio told Roberto that they will agree to a reduction in yields, but only around 1%. This angered Roberto and in 2000, he did something unheard of at the time. In an open letter to the Soave consortium, he famously wrote that he was quitting the association in order to be freed from their overly restrictive regulations.

All of Roberto's production remained IGT wines till today, even though technially, the white wines can be labelled as Soave Classico Superiore DOCG.

Many things have changed in two decades, but while Roberto has inspired a new generation of top quality Soave winemakers to rise, the wines from Anselmi are still sitting at the top of the pyramid.