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| Thank you Catherine and Federica |
Christine Marsigliano, a Master of Wine from Canada in love with Italy provided us with a surprising match of Italian wines from two extremely different regions: Alto Adige (Südtirol, South Tyrol) and Sicily, specifically the Etna wine making region. The UK Sommelier Association led by Andrea Rinaldi and Federica Zanghirella organized this event that wraps up the season for 2025.
Alto Adige
Most wine From AA are produced by cooperatives, some 70%. In the past, cooperative wine was synonymous with cheap and, at most, sometimes, cheerful. Hardly ever high quality. How times have changed. In AA coops were first introduced in 1893, when the region was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and today there are 12 of them to carry the tradition forward.
AA outputs 40m bottles per year, of which some 600k are sparkling wines. This is the result of 2500 years of wine making history, begun even before the Romans expanded and organized production much as they did all over Italy and, indeed, Europe. 96% of wines are doc (Alto Adige denomination) while about 100 sport the "unità geografica aggiuntiva" to indicate specific subregions.
Next to the coops are 32 private estates thrive in their own boutique way and 4800 wine growers provide the raw materials.
AA production makes up less than 1% of Italian wine, so a small amount even if Italy is, on and off, the largest producer of wine in the world. Only 5850 hectares, located between 200 and 1000 meters above sea level specialize in just 20 varieties.
The Habsburg brought foreign varieties like chardonnay and pinot noir, and today 65% of the resulting wine is white while 355 is red. I was surprised to hear that it used to be the other way around when lots of schiava was planted for Austrian and German markets.
Here are my tasting notes:
1. Pinot Grigio Nals Magreid 2024
Floral, zesty, good balance, moderate length. 14% abv!
Score 90
2. Sauvignon (not specify... blanc) Porphyr & Kalk, Ignaz Niedrist 2023
Intense aromatic nose, fresh, almond.
Score 88
3. Gewurztraminer Joseph, Hofstadter 2024
Very intense aromas, pineapple, vanilla, ripe fruit gives good smoothness, glycerin very present. Salty spicy. Very long. Can probably age well.
Score 91
4. Pinot nero riserva St Daniel Cantina Colterenzio 2022
300 members in Coop
Ripe cherries, smoky almost. Can feel a bit of alcohol
Score 88
5. StMagdalener classico Vigna Premstellerhof by Hans Rottensteiner 2024
StMag is mostly schiava with some Lagrein check
Ripe red fruit, good balance.
Score 89
6. Cabernet Sauvignon riserva Freienfeld, 2018 cantina Kurtatsch
Black fruit, intense nose. Rough tannins despite age. Needs several more years of aging in bottle.
Score 86
ETNA
Planted on east north and south, lava tends to flow mostly to the west. Consorzio Etna started in 1994 but there is a long history before that.
It is recorded that in 1848, well before Italy was created as a unitary state, 26,000 hectares were planted in the Etna region and by the 1880s Catania, the local provincial capital, boasted as many as 90,000 hectares of vineyards, more than any other in Sicily.
Fast forward to 1968 and Etna DOC is one of the first controlled origin denominations established in Italy, and the first in Sicily and it now comprises 1350 hectares divided among 474 producers, about half of 1% of all Italian vineyards.
Etna bianco makes up just over 40% of wine production, rosso is just over half and the rest is rosato and sparkling, for a total of some 6 million bottles per year.
Here are my tasting notes:
7. Bianco Lavico Duca di Salaparuta 2024
Carricante 100%
White flowers, Balanced and moderately long.
Score 88
8. Bianco Tifeo Gambino 2023
Carricante 70% Catarratto 30%
Similar to n. 7, smooth.
Score 88
9. Bianco superiore Contrada Rinazzo Benanti 2023
Carricante 100%
Perfect balance, mineral, moderate complexity and length.
Score 90.
10. Rosso Andico Zumbo 2020
Nerello mascalese 100%
Easy, rough corners need to be smoothened out.
Score 85
11. Rosso 2019 Fischetti Muscanento
Nerello mascalese e cappuccio
A bit rough, aggressive.
Score 86
12. Rosso tenute San Michele, Murgo 2020
Nerello mascalese 100%
Smoother more balanced than previous wines. Moderate length and complexity.
Score 87
