WINE FROM THE ALTO ADIGE

OLIVER’S NOTES:

The Alto Adige, or South Tyrol, is a distinctive wine-producing region in far northern Italy, on the border with Austria. The region is still mostly German-speaking, having been separated from Austria just after the first World War (the rest of the Tyrol, a historical area, is in Austria). The overall wine quality is excellent, in my view the highest average quality in Italy. The food is delicious, the dishes often resembling those of Austria (dumplings, for example) or even Hungary (goulash). Wine tends to be made in beautiful places, but the Alto Adige is especially so, implausibly beautiful. And I have found the people friendly and welcoming; if you are thinking of visiting northern Italy you might consider a visit here, perhaps hiking or skiing in the Dolomites to burn off the excellent wine and food you will be eating. (English is widely spoken.)

The Alto Adige lies north of Verona and Trento, in the north-east. As you go up the Autostrada from Trento you pass between cliffs as you enter the Adige valley, and the hills are a patchwork of vineyards on on either side, rising from the apple orchards on the valley floor; these hillside vineyards range in elevation from a few hundred meters around Lake Caldaro to a thousand meters, or even higher in a few cases. The road that runs north along the left side of the valley is called the Strada del Vino, or Weinstrasse, for good reason, as you are surrounded by vineyards and wineries, large and small.When you reach Bolzano (or Bozen), the main town, the valley splits into a Y, the right-hand part of which continues north to the Brenner pass and Austria. This valley, the Valle d’Isarco or Eisacktal, also produces some excellent wines.

The white wines produced in the Alto Adige are made of French  and German grape varieties that were introduced here in the nineteenth century. The white varieties are typically grown at higher elevations, which ensures crisp acidity (many producers have vineyards in different parts of the valley, at different elevations).The overall style is clean, fresh, and varietally expressive, and the climate during the growing season is surprisingly warm and sunny, which allows full ripening. Sauvignon Blanc is completely at home here, making some world-class examples of this bracing variety, combining citrus and apricot or white peach aromas and flavors with bright herbal notes. Pinot Blanc is thought of as a lesser variety in Alsace, but not here, where it makes both very attractive everyday whites (green apple and hints of citrus) and more serious white wines that somewhat resemble Chablis, and can age very well. Pinot Grigio is less interesting than its cousin Pinot Blanc, in my view, but the Alto Adige still produces some of Italy’s best examples of this popular wine. Other white wines include a few very good Rieslings, very attractive versions of the German aromatic varieties Müeller-Thurgau and Kerner, excellent age-worthy Sylvaner (in the Valle d’Isarco), and the exotically spicy Gewürztraminer, which is named for the village on the Weinstrasse called Tramin, and was at one time thought to be native.

The red wines produced in the Alto Adige are made of both native and French grape varieties. The French varieties have been planted here for well over a century, so they are traditional and very much at home. The red wine varieties are typically grown at lower elevations, so that they can ripen fully. The most popular grape locally is the thin-skinned local variety called Schiava in Italian, and Vernatsch or Trollinger in German. Although this is much less widely planted than in the past it is still widely drunk locally; ‘Trollinger’ means ‘from the Tyrol,’ and it is thought to be native. These wines are pale in color, show red fruit, spice and tea leaf notes, and are excellent everyday drinking, pairing with a wide range of different dishes. (Schiava and speck, the mouthwatering local lightly smoked ham, is a perfect combination.) The best examples come from the hill near Bolzano called Santa Maddalener/St. Magdalener or from around Lago di Caldaro/Kaltersee. Lagrein, another local grape, genetically related to Syrah and Pinot Noir, is entirely different in character; it is typically dark purple in color, with a chewy structure and aromas and flavors of blackberry, tea leaf, and ume salt plum.

The French grape varieties that have been grown in the Alto Adige include Pinot Noir, which has become increasingly widely planted (and I think increasingly good) in the last few years; and the Bordeaux varieties Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot. The best of these Tyrolean Bordeaux blends, such as the two bottlings from Baron Widmann, remind me of old-school Bordeaux, less oaky and forward than the modern versions, very age-worthy and great with food.

The large co-operative wineries here have become so successful in the last few decades that it’s easy to forget that the area is also home to a host of excellent small, family-owned farms, some of which have been farmed by the same family for centuries. We import the wines of Erste und Neue, a co-op from Caldaro/Kaltern, and we also import a range of very small artisan producers. The quality of the wines produced by these smaller producers is comparable to the top wines from the co-ops.

For more information about the producers we import, go to the individual producer pages on this site.

For more information about Alto Adige wines, go to the region’s excellent information site, www.altoadigewines.com.

For more information about the native Italian grape varieties mentioned here, see Ian d’Agata’s invaluable ‘Native Wine Grapes of Italy.’