Region: Veneto

Zone:

Corti Benedettine del Padovano DOC

This zone covers 30 comuni and stretches from the southeastern part of the Padova province, over the flat Po plain, and into the Cona and Cavarzere comuni in the Venezia province.

The rather long zone name, Corti Benedettini del Padovano, means ”The Benedictine courts of Padova", which again reveals the Catholic Church's interest in wine production.

Whether it's the income or the wine's effect that interests the pious men is uncertain, but we can nevertheless thank the robe-clad boys from the Santa Justina monastery in Padova for the fact that we have wine from this area today.

Wine production has been known in this region since antiquity, but it was especially at the beginning of the 19th century, when the monks started experimenting with alcoholic substances, that production was systemized.

Under the direction of the Benedictine monks, the area was developed with land reclamation, the damming of rivers, building of farms and, not to mention, the cultivation of fields.

A wide assortment of grapes are cultivated here, including the local Raboso, Refosco, Tocai and Moscato. The climate and soil also create good conditions for international grapes like Merlot, Cabernet, Chardonnay, Sauvignon, Pinot Grigio (Gris) and Pinot Bianco (Blanc).

On the whole, these are quite fresh white wines, often with intense, flowery notes, while the red wines are, in many cases, well-suited to medium or long aging, after which they attain more nose, body and aromatic complexity, combined with smoothness.

So far, there are 17 different wine types in Corti Benedettini del Padova DOC.