Is Alto Adige a pointless wine region?

If I were to appear on Pointless and the category was Italian wine regions, I’d be quietly confident that Alto Adige would be a pointless answer.

Italy is home to many renowned wine names – Chianti, Brunello, Barolo, Soave, Valpolicella... But there are plenty more where that came from. Italy vies with France as the biggest producer of wine in the world and is the source of more indigenous grape varieties than anywhere else: the learned tome, Wine Grapes, lists Italy as the origin of 377 varieties (ahead of France on 204).

In short, there’s always something new to discover in Italy and becoming an expert in its wines is truly a life’s work.

Tucked up into the Dolomites in the far north of Italy, Alto Adige is a region of intriguing clashes of culture, climate and language. The fact that it is also known as Südtirol, and that German, rather than Italian, is more often the first language are pointers that this area was, until the First World War, part of the Austrian Empire. Mussolini encouraged immigration from the south, in an attempt to “Italianise” the region, but met with resistance.

 

trellised vines march down the mountainsides

  

The surrounding snow-capped mountains provide a novel backdrop not just to terraces of vines, but also to the palm and fig trees that grow there. We may be in the far north, with ski-ing the main winter activity, yet Bolzano, the capital of the region, can sometimes be the hottest city in the country in the summer. Its steep, terraced hillsides make some of the most exquisite wines from the Italian peninsula, while the flat valley floor is home to industrial-scale orchards churning out Pink Lady apples by the tonne. Alto Adige is a region that confounds and intrigues at every turn.

 

the flat valley floor of Val Venosta in Alto Adige, land of the Pink Lady

The fact that this region lies a long way from the Brits’ favoured Italian holiday destinations is one of the reasons for its under the radar status. Another is that few of its wines make their way to us – and those that do tend to be on the pricey side. But for those who want to explore another side of apparently familiar varieties and to experience wines with altitude, there’s plenty to see here.

St Michael-Eppan Pinot Grigio 2015 - £11.99 from Waitrose

At the more affordable end of things, this is a good introduction to the region and its wines from its biggest co-op. Pinot Grigio from Alto Adige tends to have much more character (it could hardly have less) than the ubiquitous Veneto version.

Terlano Pinot Bianco Vorberg Riserva 2014, Cantina Terlano - £28.35 from Field and Fawcett; Petersham Cellar sells a case of six of the 2013 for £180

Two things about this wine might surprise you, given the price. Firstly it’s made by a co-op and it’s made from the apparently lowly Pinot Bianco/Pinot Blanc grape. Cantina Terlano, however, is one of the most eminent of the region’s many co-ops (12 co-ops account for 70% of the region’s wine output). And here, Pinot Blanc from steep, sunny vineyards at up to 900 metres altitude are fermented and aged in oak to give a wine of real charm. It has weight and depth with lovely fresh yellow plum fruit and wonderful texture. Like many of Alto Adige’s best white wines, this will age well – not something you might associate with Pinot Blanc from anywhere else. A less eyewatering option, pricewise, would be Hofstätter Pinot Bianco 2015 - £10.95 a bottle from The Wine Society.

Franz Haas Pinot Nero 2013/14 – Hedonism has the 2014 for £29. 50, or £25.75 from Winedirect, D&D Wine has the 2013 for £20

Franz Haas wines are some of the better distributed wines in the UK. Prices are rather steep, but theirs are some of the best Pinot Noirs you’ll find in the region.

Sauvignon Blanc Lafoá 2015, Cantina Colterenzio - £30 from Great Western Wine

Abandon hope, all ye Marlborough Sauvignon lovers who enter here. This is not about pungent gooseberry and tropical fruit and zingy acidity. Here it’s all about texture; the variety’s potent aromatics have been tamed by barrel fermentation to make something that is dry, food-friendly and ageworthy. Great Western Wine also list some of this producer’s other wines, all under £15 a bottle.

Where to buy Alto Adige wines ?

No-one has a very long list of wines from here, partly because production is pretty small to begin with. In addition to stockists already mentioned, Alpine Wines, as you might expect, have a small but decent selection; and Guildford’s Caves de Pyrène have a few well-chosen producers on their list.  

Italy - an embarrassment of riches

If you ask any wine lover which is their favourite wine producing country, they tend to fall into two camps: the Francophiles and the Italophiles.

While I tend to plump for France (and a quick glance through my back catalogue of columns here will confirm this) I can see the case for Italy. The country, and its wines, are an endless source of fascination with a wealth of indigenous grape varieties to draw on and a long history of winemaking. You could spend a lifetime studying the wines of Italy (there are worse fates) and still not exhaust what this goldmine of vines has to offer. But there is also frustration, with lacklustre wines sometimes too much in evidence, a famous name on the label no real guide to quality and a tendency to play fast and loose with wine regulations.

I swear that every time I look at a wine map of Spain, they’ve added a new region I’d never heard of before. Italy manages the same trick with grape varieties – just when you think there can’t possibly be any more to discover, up pops another one – not new, per se, just new to me.

And is it any wonder? Italy is home to 377 indigenous grape varieties, which is more than any other wine producing nation. Much more, in fact, as the second placed country for native varieties is France with just over 200.

This abundance of grape varieties is due partly to the fact that Italy has been at this winemaking lark for a very long time – long enough for new varieties to emerge and evolve. Those ancient Romans might have invented central heating with their fancy-schmancy hypocausts, but when it comes to winemaking, they were just continuing a centuries-old tradition. The Greeks, who were on the scene before the ancient Romans, dubbed the country “oenotria”, or land of the vine, testifying to its already established wine-making credentials. 

Italy makes a lot of wine – it occupies the 2^nd spot after France; both are quite some way ahead of Spain in 3^rd place.  How much wine a year? Each year varies a little, but it’s somewhere over 40 million hectolitres – or about 20 times as much as New Zealand. 

The geography of Italy can be summarised as a range of hills and mountains surrounded by sea – very little of it is flat. The boot of Italy covers many latitudes, combined with the variations in altitude, soil type, exposure and grape varieties, making it one of the most diverse wine producers - perhaps the most diverse – in the world. You can begin to see why it might take years to get to become expert in such a multi-faceted jewel of a country.

In addition, it might not surprise you to know that Italians often employ a creative approach to applying its own, sometimes arcane, wine labelling laws. Labels seem to be either impenetrably over-populated with seemingly meaningless terms; or all attempts to convey something about what’s in the bottle are sacrificed to elegant, minimal label design.

I have memories of visiting the beautiful Amalfi coast south of Naples back in the 1990s. The scenery and the food were stunning – the wines were not. Determined to drink the wines of the region, I struggled to find something that was not utterly undrinkable. The good news is that, since then, there has been a quality revolution in Italy’s wineries. They have always had good raw material to work with, and at the top level the wines have long been high quality, but now they are increasingly rising above a sea of indifferent  dross at the more everyday level.

Recently I was asked to pick six wines to represent Italy, from top to toe. I could probably pick a different six wines every week for a year and still be nowhere near exhausting Italy’s winey riches. However, here is this week’s selection, for what it’s worth.

Prosecco Bellenda Brut 2012 - £14.99 from Caves de Pyrène and independent merchants

A wine trade friend of mine calls Prosecco, Drossecco – and it’s true that too much of it is dull, too sweet and coarse. This one is drier than most (Brut rather than Extra Dry) and comes from a single vintage rather than being a Non Vintage blend.

Greco di Tufo, Benito Ferrara 2012 - £17.90 from Caves de Pyrène

From Campania, scene of my disappointing wine tour of the 1990s, this would have cheered me up no end. It combines a high quality variety (Greco) with volcanic soils to make a wine with bags of character. Not particularly aromatic, but it has layers of flavour, including stone fruit, lovely texture and length.

Gewürztraminer “Joseph” J Hofstätter 2012 -

£13.95 from The Wine Society

Can this really be Italian, with all those Germanic-sounding names? Well it is, just. Alto Adige, in Italy’s far north, is also known as Süd Tirol – it was part of the Austrian Empire until the end of the First World War and the population is predominantly German speaking. This aromatic variety might be associated with Alsace or Germany, but it originates from here, around the village of Traminer. Expect rich, spicy, lychee and Turkish Delight flavours.

Marzemino, Castel Firmian 2012 - £6.95 from The Wine Society

Further down the Adige valley is the Trentino region, whence this wine comes. I love the way Italy can produce some of the most serious and sometimes austere wines (Barolo and Chianti spring to mind) but alongside them is happy to dish up light-hearted, unchallenging and delightfully fruity ones, such as this Marzemino.

Fondo Filara Etna Rosso, Nicosia 2012 - £10.95 from The Wine Society

To say that soils in the Etna region of Sicily are volcanic is something of an understatement. This is a typical Etna blend of Nerello Mascalese and Nerello Cappuccio and its structure and minerality demand food.

Morellino di Scansano  “Bellamarsilia”, Poggio Argentiera 2012 - £11.81 from Caves

de Pyrène, Majestic has a very similar wine for £11.99

I’m avoiding the elephant in the room that is Chianti, which is too big and complex a region to be summed up in one wine – but this is one is close. From the Tuscan coast, this blend of Sangiovese (the Chianti grape) and the ancient Ciliegiolo has the black cherry and leafy characters of Chianti, but with more roundness and ripeness, making it easy to love and flexible with food.

Chablis and culture shock in Italy

This week the two Heathers have been dipping their toes in culture – and getting culture shock – all in the pursuit of their love of wine.

Heather Aitken
So there I was in the Royal Opera House Covent garden, soaking up the atmosphere from under a crystalline chandelier. The cast – mostly French - were singing the praises of the star of the show, that well-known and ancient export from northern Burgundy – Chablis.

The first time the wine Chablis was recorded was 312AD, so it has been around a very long time. It is made purely from the Chardonnay grape variety grown on limestone soil formed in the Kimmerigian period, which retains a wealth of fossilized oyster shells from this upper Jurassic era. This soil imparts the acidity and the sun gives the balance of the fruitiness to the wine. There is a village in Dorset called Kimmeridge which is well known by geologists for its rich fossil finds but to my knowledge this area does not produce wine.

The Chablis symposium was held in magnificent splendour and we the delegates were talked and tasted through Petit to Grand Cru.....little to big quite literally, that is French vineyard speak! As they say “it’s a hard job but someone’s got to do it!”

It is worth noting here that the word “symposium” , now taken to mean some sort of educational teaching and discourse, actually comes from the Greek word sympotein which translates “to drink together”, so very apt in this instance. Next time your partner says that he or she is going to be late home as they are at a symposium - take it that they are in the pub!

After the symposium there was the opportunity to talk with the growers and exporters of Chablis and the chance to try the often distinctly different styles of this wine. I learnt that the four appellations of Chablis, Petit Chablis, Chablis, Chablis Premier Cru and Chablis Grand Cru are grouped around the river Serein, with arguably the best wine found on the right bank. Within these appellations there are distinctive differences in taste and longevity.

Maud Manfredini –Mullard (doesn’t sound French to me) of Lamblin & Fils was very informative and in her opinion Petit Chablis is at its best at 2 years old, Chablis at 5 years old, Premier Cru 6 to 8 years and the Grand Cru 15 maximum. Some people will tell you that these wines will last for longer, but they would have to be of exceptional vintage.

Daniel Etienne Defaix owns one of the most ancient estates in Chablis and his first claim to fame is that the Romans regarded this stretch of land so highly that they built a road around it rather than crossing it in a straight line as was their usual practice! His more recent claim to fame is that he supplies many Michelin restaurants such as the Roux brothers with his wines

Biodynamics is the new buzz word for natural methods of cultivation, really a throw back to the ways our ancestors observed. In a nutshell, plants are treated with only natural products such as cow manure and medicinal plants, and as much as possible the rhythms of the solar system are followed to perform certain tasks. The idea is to be in harmony with nature. Well I’m all for it as Joseph Drouhin has produced some magnificent quality wines which have benefited enormously from this old, but newly re-instigated practice.

Finally and most importantly a quick word on the compatibility of the different types of Chablis with food. Petit Chablis is perfect with aperitifs and goes wonderfully well with Chevre, goats cheese. Chablis is great with seafood and fish, and also complements swiss cheese and mature cheddar. Chablis Premier Cru can accompany chicken dishes, ham and is renowned for being the perfect foil for the famous Burgundian cheese Epoisses. Chablis Grand Cru works well with creamy dishes, but as it is a special wine it really deserves to be drunk with its equals – foie gras and lobster.

Life is short, enjoy its pleasures. To quote that famous poet, Anon, “Life is too short to drink bad wine”!


Alto Adige – It’s Italy, but not as we know it….
Heather Dougherty
While Heather A was getting cultural at the Royal Opera House, I was jetting off to what I thought was Italy. Well we landed in Verona, that’s definitely Italian, no problem there. But after a two hour drive north, we were in the Italian Dolomites in the region that is officially known as either Alto Adige, or Südtirol – and there lies the clue.

Most people here are native German speakers (though they are all bi-lingual); the scenery is most definitely Alpine; I spotted men in Lederhosen; our welcome address was outside in the cold and dark because “it’s good for the heart”. I put it to you m’lud, that Alto Adige is not Italian at all, but a long lost bit of Austria.

This most northerly part of Italy borders Austria and clearly has much in common with that country – indeed it was part of the Austrian Empire until as recently as 1919. I went to bed feeling rather confused.

The next day dawned and there were the mountains – but equally, I spotted fig trees, cypresses and the odd olive tree. They may be gearing up for the ski season now, but in the summer this place can be hotter than Rome…maybe it is Italy after all.

The wines are a fascinating mix of those Alpine and Mediterranean cross currents – mostly white, clean and crisp, but with a sense of warmth and ripeness to the fruit. Look out for Pinot Grigio with character and shape, the usually overlooked Pinot Bianco, stunning Gewurtraminers and occasionally thrilling Rieslings. They even take Müller-Thurgau seriously here – the grape forever damned for its part in creating lolly-water Liebfraumilch. You might also find a smattering of Pinot Nero (aka Pinot Noir) reaching the UK.