NYC Culture/Style: ALTO ADIGE WINES Grand Tasting

Sunday, June 9, 2013

ALTO ADIGE WINES Grand Tasting

On April 25 at the Metropolitan Pavilion, The wineries of Alto Adige invited members of the trade and press to taste Italian wines at their peak.

Alto Adige, also known as Südtirol due to its bicultural Italian and Austrian heritage, is acknowledged by sommeliers the world over for wines of impeccable quality and value. About a third of the size of Napa Valley, Alto Adige is a small wine growing region that accounts for just 1% of Italy’s total production. 98% of wines produced in Alto Adige are DOC [Denominazione di Origine Controllata, meaning “controlled designation of origin”] status wines. A plethora of grapes are grown here, including Pinot Bianco [Pinot Blanc], Pinot Grigio and Gewürztraminer, and Lagrein, Pinot Nero [Pinot Noir] and Schiava, to name but a few. The white wines are bright, mineral and crisp, while the reds can be complex with supple tannins

Alto Adige is one of the oldest wine producing regions in Europe; archeological evidence points

as far back as the fifth century B.C. Fast forward in history, Alto Adige was part of the Austro Hungarian Empire until it was annexed by Italy after World War I; hence both Italian and German are spoken here. The signs for local towns and villages bear names in both languages, and wine labels are often bi-lingual.