Soave, dry white wine from the veneto region of north-east Italy. Like the neighbouring valpolicella zone, the Soave zone was expanded enormously with the creation of the Soave doc in 1968. At the time, both regions were enjoying an export boom, so production flowed off the small hilly zone onto the alluvial plain of the Adige River. The classico zone of mostly hillside vineyards first defined and delimited in 1927, is the source of superior Soave. The eastern part of the zone, in the commune of Monteforte d’Alpone, where the vineyards are planted on decomposed volcanic rock, produces steelier wines than those from the western part in the commune of Soave, where the higher percentage of limestone in the soil and the warmer afternoon sun gives fuller, more forward wines.
