On June 29, The Tasting Panel Magazine hosted a wonderful tasting and luncheon at 25 Lusk in San Francisco, featuring the wines of Lugana. Located near lake Garda, Lugana is a small relatively unknown wine producing region in Northern Italy between Lombardy and Veneto that is showing itself as a hidden gem in the world of Italian white wines.

The main grape of this area is Trebbiano di Lugana (AK Turbiana), though nearly genetically identical to the Trebbiano we see used for Orvieto or Cognac production, the refreshingly mineral and crisp complex wines from this area are anything but simple table wines, rather more reminiscent of Verdecchio. My overall impressions are that the wines here have a distinct almost flinty minerality, a refreshing acid structure, complex fruity and some floral aromatics, and in many cases it seems there is a possibility of botrytis, though the wines I tasted were dry. Some had hints of the waxy wool often associated with…