More likely though, the name came from the Suevi (also called Suebi) – a group of Germanic people, among whom were the Lombards, who settled in Italy in 568 AD with King Alboin as their leader. Soave was once a pagus, a Roman administrative region so it was already known for its cultivations, but during the Lombards times viticulture grew in importance. Some letters from Cassiodorus, the 5th century Roman statesman, scholar and writer who served in the administration of the king of the Ostrogoths Theodoric the Great, attest that viticulture was already established in the region. In his epistles he recommends that royal banquets always serve full-bodied “soavissimi” (very pleasing) Veronese wines from white grapes able to express “clear purity, conviviality and astonishing pleasantness”. Soave experienced a peak of popularity in the US market during the mid-20th-century when Italian wine boomed after the end of World War II. Thanks to the effort of large producers, in the 1970s Soave overtook Chianti to become the largest selling Italian DOC wine in the US for a period of time.