Expert’s choice: Alto Adige

The biennial Wine Summit in Bolzano is more than just another anteprima tasting. Seminars and winery tours form an integral part of the event, providing the background knowledge for a better-informed approach to the 200 or so new releases available to taste. The unique conditions of the Alto Adige’s jaw-dropping vineyard scenery – climate, topography and altitude – are the key feature.

An extraordinary turnaround since the 1980s has seen the area transformed from a supplier of anonymous, mainly red, bulk wine into Italy’s most exciting source of fine whites. While international grapes like Chardonnay and Sauvignon paved the way, nowadays the stunning cocktail of freshness, aroma and structure that varieties such as Gewürztraminer, Pinot Bianco and Riesling deliver with such grace takes centre stage. Even Pinot Grigio can produce something special.

Meanwhile, heading along the autostrada from Bolzano up the Isarco valley (or Eisacktal, as it is frequently called in this quintessentially bilingual area) towards the Brenner Pass, Italy’s northernmost vineyards produce outstanding examples of the less fashionable Müller-Thurgau, Sylvaner, Kerner and Grüner Veltliner at altitudes of up to 1,000 metres. Think ‘as clean and fresh as a mountain stream’.

While the higher vineyards clinging to the rocky slopes seem predestined to produce fine white wines, more surprising perhaps is the commendable surge in quality of the reds. Again, international grapes have played an important role. Mumelter Riserva, a Cabernet Sauvignon from excellent local cooperative Cantina Bolzano, even won a 2019 Decanter World Wine Awards Best in Show trophy. Similarly, the Alto Adige enjoys a burgeoning reputation for Italy’s finest Pinot Nero (Pinot Noir), primarily on the cooler, west-facing slopes of the Adige valley around the villages of Mazzon and Montagna.

As with the whites, attention is turning back towards the red grapes traditionally associated with the area. The variety behind those oceans of anonymous bulk red, Schiava (Vernatsch in German), is undergoing a radical shift in favour. Experiments with lower yields and vines grown in different types of terreno (the Italian word for terroir) are beginning to tease out unexpectedly impressive nuances from this working-class hero.

Preferring the lower altitudes around the area’s principal city of Bolzano, the other important indigenous red grape is Lagrein. Until just a few decades ago, the variety was mainly used to produce Kretzer (a rosé wine) but nowadays the pendulum has swung the other way and 80% of Lagrein is made into a full-bodied red that’s usually at its best by its 10th birthday.

Still, if the Alto Adige has an iconic wine, it has to be Pinot Bianco (Weissburgunder). Its unique combination of scintillating freshness and juicy ripeness seems to encapsulate the best of this remarkable area. Add in the wine’s undoubted ageing capacity, and its true potential becomes as clear as the alpine sky.

Michael Garner’s top 18 Alto Adige wines