Custoza, Bianco di

or Custoza

Appears in
Oxford Companion to Wine

By Jancis Robinson

Published 2006

  • About

Custoza, Bianco di or Custoza, a straightforward dry white wine produced in the veneto region of north-east Italy in a wide stretch of territory extending south westward from the city of Verona partially overlapping the bardolino DOC zone on the shores of Lake Garda and immediately south of the lake. The total vineyard area had fallen to just over 1,200 ha/2,964 acres by 2011. The substantial presence of trebbiano Toscano grapes (constituting 10 to 45% of the blend), blended with garganega (20 to 40%), a local strain of friuliano known as Trebianello (5 to 30%), and a variety of other grapes (Riesling Italico, Pinot Bianco, Chardonnnay, Malvasia Toscana), tends to yield a rather colourless, neutral wine on the fertile soils of this zone. While substantial research in soil composition and mesoclimates was executed in 2010, resulting in the identification of ten subzones, this has yet to result in either innovation or an increase in quality.