Il Casone

Il Casone is a Veneto range built on the region's own grapes, from the plains and low hills of the eastern Veneto where the Piave and its tributaries have laid down deep alluvial soils over millennia.

The name refers to the traditional thatched fishermen's huts of the Venetian lagoon, built of reeds and marsh grass and still found along the coast. The area's viticulture is unglamorous but genuinely old, and it holds varieties that exist almost nowhere else: Raboso in particular is native to the Piave and is one of the most tannic and acidic red grapes in Italy, historically valued precisely because it survived long journeys.

Garganega, the grape of Soave, and Pinot Grigio complete the range. These are honest wines made for the table rather than the cellar, and the Raboso is worth trying for its sheer unfamiliarity.