Bardolino isn’t the first DOC that springs to mind when you bring Corvina, Rondinella and Corvinone into conversation. The region is wedged between the eastern shores of Lake Garda and Valpolicella’s western flank, and offers a very different proposition to its more famous, heavyweight neighbour.
It’s a lakeside region that covers around 2,700 hectares of vines, starting from Peschiera del Garda, moving up to Garda town itself. The DOC produces around 21 million bottles a year across 11 million red and 10 million rosé under the refreshing Chiaretto di Bardolino DOC.
The cooling influence of Lake Garda can be found in the fresh wines of Bardolino
Corvina is the dominating grape that is central to both styles.As you would expect, the immediate surrounding region provides the strongest market for Bardolino, with export markets Germany and the US proving to be valuable outlets for many producers. But there is work to be done in the UK, where demand for more modest levels of alcohol might just find favour with consumers.
The terroir here is home to the famous Morainic soils, a mineral-rich mix of gravel, sand and clay that stretches from Lugana to Trentino and Alto Adige and beyond. Its free-draining nature lends itself well to Bardolino’s iteration of Valpolicella’s stalwarts, and it’s this glacial stamp on the landscape, coupled with Bardolino’s lighter-handed approach to its grapes, that sets the stage for wines made to refresh rather than overwhelm.
These are wines that show a playful side to Corvina and co, leaning into examples with a firm backbone of acidity, moderate levels of alcohol and plenty of aromatic appeal. They are light on their feet, but still serious.
Bardolino reds and rosés are crunchy and vivid, delivering an approachable charm. And for those who want to dig deeper, there’s a growing world of terroir-driven subzones and characterful winemakers worth exploring.
Juicy wines
“Juicy,” is the descriptor used by Constantino Gabardi, a local expert and ambassador ofBardolino and Custoza DOC, in a recent masterclass of both regions. We tasted seven wines: two rosés (Chiaretto di Bardolino DOC), two Bardolino DOC classic reds, and three sub-regional wines from ‘sottozones’; La Rocca, Sommacampagna and Montebaldo.
The Bardolino DOC requires a lower minimum percentage (35%) of Corvina in the blend than Valpolicella (45%), and Rondinella is the reliable second choice variety, with the majority of the wines I tasted at DOC-level weighing in with around 80% Corvina and 20% Rondinella.
A couple of producers include the less-favoured Molinara grape, but I get the sense that’s more out of a need to make up the numbers rather than a quality-driven necessity. Corvinone is widely accepted as a worthy blending component but rarely contributes more than a 5-10% addition.
The rosés of Chiaretto de Bardolino DOC
The same goes for “the best rosé in Italy,” according to Gabardi: Chiaratto di Bardolino. With the vast majority of wines tasted composed of that 80/20 blend of Corvina and Rondinella.
I can comfortably describe Chiratetto as an alternative Provence. Across the board, the wines are appropriately pale, enough to comfortably move Provence lovers onto this wine without much resistance. Notes of cranberry and strawberry fruit underpin herbal qualities in better examples, and a confident sommelier or wine shop owner could easily introduce a bit of familiarity with originality to the more curious, open-drinking customer.
Chiaretto di Bardolino DOC, Menegotti, 2024
A third-generation producer specialising in traditional method sparkling wine that champions Corvina. Organic practising. Bone-dry and herbal with a lot of red berry and grapefruit tension. A step away from some of the cool ferment styles you will find in the region, a wine that puts salinity and structure front and centre. 12.5% abv.
Importer: Corney & Barrow.
Chiaretto di Bardolino DOC, Monte del Frà 2024
Perhaps one of the most important producers in Custoza which naturally, produces Bardolino as well. This is such a solid rosé, with a mineral, wet rock character and red fruit by the way of fresh cranberry and ripe strawberry. In the mouth, this is creamy and textured, with more volume than its counterparts. 12.5% abv.
Importer: Bancroft.
Chiaretto di Bardolino DOC, Tenuta la Presa (vertical)
This was an interesting exercise and useful to understand the ageing potential of Chiaretto. La Presa has 30 hectares in Montebaldo, one of Bardolino’s sub-zones; they work as reductively as possible, with limited use of sulphur and only with free run juice. It is owned by the new president of the consorzio: Fabio Dei Micheli.
Importer: LWC.
2024
The current vintage. Provençal-pale in the glass. With notes of grapefruit and white pepper. This is lean and racy with good texture and a subtle grip. 12.5% abv.
2023
The 2023 shows a little more generosity than the 2024, with hints of orange peel, orange blossom and rose. This has a lovely volume in the mouth, with fizzing acidity. It’s in a really good place. 12.5% abv.
2019
A brilliant example of Chiaretto’s potential to age. The 2019 delivers candied orange and savoury appeal, with notes of honeycomb and spice, with a lovely mineral vein of acidity and white peach finish. 12.5% abv.
Bardolino DOC
On the face of it, Bardolino’s reds are fresh-faced and extremely approachable, making them a good fit for the ‘modern’ drinker.
Bardolino DOC, Gorgo, 2024
A fully organic 53-hectare estate owned by Roberta Bricolo, who is also the president of the Custoza consorzio. This wine embodies the freshness and approachability of classico. Pale ruby in the glass, with bright notes of red cherry and raspberry. This is juicy and ripe with cracked black pepper appeal. Served chilled. 12.5% abv.
Importer: Ellis of Richmond.
Bardolino DOC, Menegotti ,2024
60% Corvina, 40% Rondinella. Spontaneous fermentation with around 20% whole bunch. One of the riper and more intense examples of classico you’ll find, with nicely extracted, mouth-coating tannins, bright acidity and a subtle leafy tension through to the finish.
Importer: Corney & Barrow.
Bardolino DOC, Montresor, 2022 (Organic)
Montresor is a key producer across both Valpolicella, Bardolino and Custoza, and you will find the winery within the city limits of Verona itself. With a bit of age, this 2022 shows off a little more coffee and mocha character, still with attractive structure and firm tannin.
Importer: Boutinot.
Three Sottozones
There is more to Bardolino’s reds than meets the eye. Much more excitement and development go into the aforementioned sottozones, or subregions. This is what Bardolino’s producers are putting their time and effort into beyond the lens of classico and superiore, and it’s certainly where things get interesting.
La Rocca
La Rocca’s vineyards find themselves the closest to Lake Garda on the sandier of the morainic soils; I found them to be the most perfumed of the three viticultural zones. It wouldn’t be out of the question to place La Rocca, stylistically somewhere between Sommacampagna and Montebaldo, offering, generally speaking, wines of delicate elegance and pretty aromatics that lean into dried florals and lavender notes.
Sommacampagna delivers the most powerful reds of the trio of subzones. They are denser and richer than La Rocca and Montebaldo, with more opulence thanks to a richer clay content in the subregion. The vineyards are the most southerly of the three.
Finally, Montebaldo produces arguably the region’s most age-worthy wines. These are firm and structured, offering precision, with chewy tannins for the most part, and aromas that generally flirt between fresh and stewed cherry, hemmed in by herbal notes. Diurnals here play their part; it’s not unusual to see a 20-degree shift from day to night. Montebaldo’s wines display a tension that I couldn’t find in La Rocca or Sommacampagna.
Bardolino DOC, Montebaldo, Montezovo, 2022
Owned by the Cottini family, Montezovo makes wine from Valpolicella, Soave, Lugana, Custoza and Bardolino. A blend of Corvina, Corvinone and Rondinella from vineyards grown at 250-300m. The nose bounces between ripe, fresh, floral cherry, stewed fruit and a rosemary accent. Firm and structured, this is a brilliant example of Montebaldo that delivers attractive flavours of thyme, black cherry and milk chocolate in the mouth. 5,000 bottles made. 13%.
Importer: Alliance Wines.
Alcohol-dictating tax hikes in the UK sit well with Bardolino. Most of the wines seem to come in at around 12.5% abv (naturally, there are exceptions). If you layer that with cooler climate character thanks to the proximity of Lake Garda, and an unfailing ability to charm after 30 minutes in the fridge, I reckon it’s a good time for Bardolino DOC in the UK.
Naturally, the DOC reds are the engine room of the appellation, but the inclusion of the three sottozones and a few more than worthy Superiore DOCG examples makes this a region worth taking a much closer look at next time you are looking for a new Valpolicella listing.
* If you would like to know more about Bardolino go to the Consorzio di tutela del Chiaretto e del Bardolino website here.
