Enclosed by the original town walls and dominated by its medieval fortress, Soave has a peaceful, timeless quality about it. In the heart of the old town is the Pieropan winery, which goes back to 1860. The present Leonildo ("Nino")’s grandfather, Leonildo Senior, founded the estate and ‘invented’ Recioto di Soave, a concentrated dessert wine applying a system similar to Tuscany’s governo to the indigenous, white Garganega grape. Nino himself has been called "the noble soul of this appellation". Never was a man worthier of such high praise. Not only is he a vinicultural genius; he has seen the controversial Soave DOC through thick and thin for over thirty years, never yielding a single quality inch vis-à-vis the general trend towards anonymous supermarket quaffs. Flanked by a wife – Teresita – as plucky and strong as she looks dainty and delicate, Pieropan has shown the world just how great Soave can be in the right hands... and on the right soil. The soil itself was Nino’s first secret. From the very beginning, when he took over his grandfather’s winery in 1970, young Leonildo gradually purchased some of the finest, highest-rising terroirs in the appellation: mount Calvarino, Pigno, Becco, Boiolo, Tondo Visit the Pieropan website.