I had a bottle of Le Rive, a soave classico the other night, by azienda agricola suavia. I imagine it will get 92-94 points out of Wine Spectator. Nice wine. Soave it ain’t.
Essentially they moved the wine away from the crisp light palate of soave and toward New World Chardonnay palate by using different strains of yeast and an oaking regimen. The combination brings out tastes of tropical fruit plus some vanillin and caramel, and mutes the acidity.
If you loved fruity/buttery chard you’ll love this wine.
Me I like my wines with some acidic bite.
The problem is Le Rive or Soave, or Italian. The problem is that too many drinkers want their wine to taste homogenous. And way too many drinkers at the moment really want a smooth slightly sweet palate. None of this is surprising – the reverse in fact. A hundred years ago people paid the most money German riesling and particularly for Spatlese, Auslese and up wines.
I find it interesting though how quickly the public palate moves. And even more interesting how folks like the Wine Spectator (and me? I don’t think I’m that important.) provide authorization for particular flavour sets to be drunk world wide.