Roccolo Grassi· Mezzane di Sotto

Most Valpolicella estates pick a colour. Marco Sartori refuses to, and Roccolo Grassi is the rare house where the reds and the white are equally serious. He farms volcanic ground at Mezzane di Sotto, in the eastern reaches of the zone, and turns out Valpolicella Superiore and Amarone from Corvina and Rondinella alongside a Soave from Garganega.

The Amarone spends thirty-six months in barrique, a quarter of it new, powerful but never slack, because the volcanic soils of Mezzane hold an acidity the flatter western zones cannot match. Dried cherry, dark chocolate, tar, coffee; it needs time and rewards it.

The wine that catches my customers off guard is the Soave La Broia, Garganega off basalt at 400 metres, all almond, citrus peel, and salt. I put it among the finest whites in Italy, and anyone who still thinks Soave is a supermarket wine has not met this one. I take everything I can; it comes in small quantities.