Suave Orange Soave? Menti - Monte del Cuca 2013

The message from Menti, a small family estate in Northern Italy's Veneto, has a clear intent - these wines are strong, characterful and rather distinct from the usual light, fruity fare that one would expect. Monte del Cuca is a 100% Garganega feremented

(Almost) every week, I select an orange wine (a white wine made with extended skin contact) that grabbed my attention. View the whole series here.

Writing the title to this post, I accidentally started humming "sendin' out an SOS..." - strangely apt, after all what is wine if not a "message in a bottle"? The message from Menti, a small family estate in Northern Italy's Veneto, has a clear intent - these wines are strong, characterful and rather distinct from the usual light, fruity fare that one would expect.

It is naughty to mention Soave, since Menti are in the neighbouring DOC Gambellara. However Soave has become the reference point for this part of the Veneto and for the Garganega grape variety, albeit for dubious reasons - high yields and plentiful production assured its export success in the 1980s and 90s. In any case, Menti don't seem too fond of their region's DOC - on the labels they eschew it for the decidedly barbed "vino volutamente declassato" ("deliberately declassified wi…