Wine Odyssey
Alto Adige/Süd Tirol
Neville Blech and Neil Fairlamb discover some of the gastronomic delights of this
Alpine paradise.
Map provided by Wikipedia
With 70% of the population speaking German as their first language (25% Italian and
5% Ladin), this autonomous region (known as Südtirol locally) has an almost schizophrenic
feeling – we are in Italy, but are we REALLY in Italy? After so many years of Hapsburg
domination, followed by forced ‘Italianisation’ from the 1920s until the end of the
second world war, it is only in the last few years that we can see the tremendous
progress that had been made here technologically and socially to give the people
of this region a unique identity and to make it one of the most interesting and charming
places to visit for its food, its wines and its people. Having got our heads round
the labelling which is sometimes in German and sometimes in Italian, we couldn’t
but admire the technical competence, state-of-the-art wine cellars, quality development
of autochthonal grape varieties and modern production methods which has ranked some
of these wines among the top quartile in the world. Coupled with stunning scenery
this is a food and wine Odyssey not to be missed.
Our trip coincided with the now well-established Merano Wine Festival and we took
the opportunity to call in at some of the winemakers and sample some of the local
(and not so local) restaurants.
Merano has hosted a highly selective quality wine and culinary show since 1992 with
entrance prices to match. The elegant venue cannot quite cope with the crowds and
by mid afternoon some wines had already run out, among them some of the Bordeaux
grand crus (31 of them including seven Sauternes, the sweet wine estates under-visited).
Thirty-seven of the top VDP estates of Germany were there and 24 Champagne producers,
but mainly, of course, the home team of over 350 Italian producers. Some, like the
55 biodynamic producers, were there for only one day (the day before we were there).
Excellent big but correctly shaped tasting glasses were on hire for a 5€ deposit.
In loyalty to our South Tyrolean hosts I spent most of the short time available with
the 30 Alto Adige stands, including properties we had visited but where there were
other wines to try. The aromatic Sauvignon and Gewűrztraminer were consistently the
most successful; the former nettly and vibrant but not vegetal or green-peppery with
plenty of full but racy fruit, while the latter delighted with fresh rose-petal purity
and, so rare with this varietal, not usually a trace of cloying heaviness because
well-crafted acidity often made for a super balance. Pinot Bianco achieves a satisfying
ripeness but remains just a sound and full but bland-tasting wine; Hofstätter`s was
the best, with some nerve of flavour. The Tramin cooperative`s Pinot Grigio Unterebner
2008 was unsurpassed in this varietal. Műller-Thurgau grows well at the highest slopes
and is a refresher, no more. Eisacktaler Kellerei (UK importer Les Caves de Pyrène)
had fresh, positive and full-tasting Sylvaner, Veltliner and Riesling. Effortlessly
authoritative with clean lines and elegant fruit was Alois Lageder`s 50/50 Chardonnay/Pinot
Grigio 2008 Beta Delta (surely better named Alpha/Alpha) and the barrique Löwengang
Chardonnay 2006 was full, round and complete (Bibendum).
Blends are successful: Elena Walch`s Beyond the Clouds 2008 had 15% of aromatic varietals
to complement the body and balance given by 85% Chardonnay (Adam Bancroft). Pinot
Noir from cool sites had elegance of bouquet and silky texture but a few also had
a rôtie note on the nose that slightly spoilt the effect. Krafuss 2006 from Lageder
had stylish balance; the best on the tables was the elegant fresh Batheneau 2006
in magnum from Hofstätter. The native Lagrein needs careful making; it is deep-coloured
and refreshingly textured but needs to be ripe enough to avoid a sour-plum taste
– easily the best pure Lagrein was from Elena Walch, Castel Ringberg 2005. Cabernet
Sauvignon could sometimes be a touch green but not Laimburg`s Sas Roa`s 2005 Riserva,
22 months in barrique, well-integrated and convincing, as was Lageder`s suaver Cor
Romigberg 06: the two best Cabernets tasted from the region.
Producers with the best overall ranges not mentioned above were Peter Solva (fine
Sauvignon, a complete and interesting Cabernet, Lagrein, Merlot blend Amritsar 2006),
Kellerei St Pauls (convincing dry and deep Gewűrz and a balanced, appetising Lagrein),
Niedermayr (Euforus a quite full, flavoursome Cab/Merlot/Lagrein blend), Kellerei
Kaltern/Caldaro (firm, structured wines), Manincor (austere, even severe, Sauvignon
and Pinot Noir and a chocolatey, firm Cassiano 2006 with Merlot, two Cabernets and
dashes of Tempranillo, Petit Verdot and Syrah in the unique blend), Erste & Neue
Kellerei (true Sauvignon and Pinot Noir flavours), K. Martini (Palladium, a successful
blend of Lagrein and Cabernet) and Erbhof Unterganzner Reif 2007, a young but long-flavoured
smooth blend of Cabernet, Lagrein and Petit Verdot).
A full morning`s work. I should have spent the afternoon with Italy: a brief sortie
to the Extremis table, ie the furthest compass points of Italy, was inviting and
the absolutely gorgeously ripe Primitivo (Es) and Negroamaro (Jo) from Gianfranco
Fino in Puglia were hard to leave. But I chose to revisit all my German top estates
and the classed growth sweet Bordeaux, partly, sadly, because the queues were not
there.
A delightful wine fair, not too overtaxing and in the most agreeable location.
Food and wine are meant to compliment each other and our experiences during this
trip were varied. Whilst we might have expected to have been offered a lot of traditional
Alto Adige food (its Hapsburg and middle European origins are clear), we were treated
to a more ‘international’ cuisine except for one notable exception.
Accommodated at the comfortable five-star Parkhotel Laurin in Bolzano, we had our
first meal at the hotel and enjoyed its inventive cuisine. A Moscato Giallo 2007
from Manincor was a pleasant enough aperitif to kick off the evening without being
too taxing on the palate. The octopus carpaccio with red Sicilian prawns and citrus
fruits was a good dish to show off the accompanying wines. Leaving aside the citrus
fruits which are a challenge for any wine, the rich prawns matched very well with
the juicy Pinot Grigio from the Traminer Kellerei, whilst the more restrained ‘Sophie’
blend of Chardonnay, Viognier and Sauvignon Blanc, again from Manincor, complimented
the drier, thinly sliced octopus meat. The main course was a thick slice of saddle
of veal in a parmesan crust, standing up in the middle of the plate like a piece
of cake and accompanied with a truffle sauce and pumpkin. Here we had two contrasting
wines – a Pinot Nero from Manincor and a blend of Sauvignon Blanc, Gewürztraminer,
Chardonnay and Pinot Bianco from the Traminer co-operative. The aromacy on the finish
of the blend, I felt, was more suited to the sauce than the Pinot Nero, which lacked
a bit of generosity of fruit, but there was certainly no disharmony in the matching
of either wine. Dessert was a tranche of Valrhona chocolate cake with pistachio nut
marzipan and raspberries. Here, we were treated to two different wines again – a
late harvest Gewürztraminer from the co-operative at Traminer and a Rosenmuskateller
produced from the Research Centre of Agriculture and Forestry at Laimburg. The Gewürztraminer
was not overtly aromatic – sweet but not sickly, and was a better match than the
Rosenmuskateller, which although displaying typical scents of rose petals was a little
too clumsy for the dish.
Lunch next day was at Schwarzer Adler Hotel – a well known watering hole at Kurtasch
(Cortaccia) on the Wine Road. What was so acceptable here was the execution of the
cuisine – home-made spelt spaghetti with chicken breast, garlic and sweet peppers
in a light cream sauce, Grilled tagliata of beef with a rocket salad and potatoes
and a lovely almond-flavoured tirimisu. The spaghetti dish was really flavoursome
but the Riesling Kaiton 2008 from the Kuenhof estate had neither the weight nor the
complexity to take this dish. The beef tagliata, normally cut from the end of the
sirloin and quite often found to be a bit chewy in many restaurants, was superbly
cooked – our knives went through this like butter – and the accompanying rocket salad
was also complimented by the ever-so-slightly savoury flavour of the Franz Haas Pinot
Nero 2007. The 2006 Gewűrztraminer Spätlese from Hofstätter was a good match with
the tirimisu, if lacking a little length on the palate.
Perhaps the biggest surprise of the trip to the Alto Adige was to be taken to a Sicilian
restaurant (Corona) in Bolzano! Maybe our hosts chose this for us because it was
only a few minutes walk from our hotel, or maybe it was because they thought that
we would have had enough speck and knödels to last us a lifetime, but this was Italian
regional cuisine taken to extremes! The capo at the restaurant (you could hardly
call him a maître d’) looked like a cross between Andy Capp and Fred Flintstone and
persuaded us to have an all-fish dinner, an offer we felt was better not to refuse.
And so it came… and it came… and it came. A starter of prawns, anchovies in rice
and a tempura of aubergine and courgettes accompanied by a plate of flattened and
fried sardines, an octopus salad, mussels and clams (a real blow-out, this) was followed
by a risotto of red mullet and THEN followed by tagliatelle with tuna. NOT that the
cuisine was bad – it was just patently overwhelming as well as being rather on the
dry side. When we came to the main course (sea bream with potatoes and vegetables)
we really had to give this up and declined it. We hoped that we hadn’t offended our
hosts and were worried that Angelo wasn’t instructed to ‘take some of us for a ride’
but we survived! All this was washed down with one of the most unspeakable Sicilian
white wines (no choice), the name of which escapes me but it was so short it made
Toulouse Lautrec look like Usain Bolt.
Lunch at the Merano wine fair was a snackette in the press tent – I had a nice little
plate of ravioli in a tomato sauce, but there were other choices, depending on the
hour you ate there. There were good wine choices, too – I had a glass of a juicy
Lagrein from Schmid Oberrautner. The evening meal was at a kind of vinotheque called
Pillhof, in the hills about a 10-minute drive from Bolzano. Here we kicked off with
fried balls of fresh goat’s cheese with some grilled vegetables and salad. With this
we had a Sauvignon Blanc, ‘Prail’ 2008 from the Coltarenzio co-operative – a grassy,
zingy wine in a Sancerre mode that went well with the goat’s cheese. This was followed
by gnocchi with little pieces of stewed veal and shitake mushrooms – with this we
had a Vernatsch (Schiava), ‘Sankta Magdalener Klassik’ 2008 from Christian Plattner’s
Ansitz Waldgries vineyard – a smooth and very quaffable red. The main course was
saddle of veal with a purée of potato and fennel. This was accompanied by Sanct Valentin
Blauburgunder (Pinot Nero) 2006 from the St Michael-Eppan co-operative – a lush wine
with plenty of ‘grip’. The dessert of a semi-freddo of chestnut with an apricot coulis
was extremely well matched with the unctuous late harvest Gewürztraminer ‘Roan’ 2007
from the Traminer co-operative.
On to the final day and lunch at last at a really typical rustic establishment –
the Patscheiderhof Inn up a remote road not far from the Loacker estate near Bolzano.
Here we started off with a knödel of potato with minced game meat and a cabbage salad,
followed by a triptych of cheese, beetroot and spinach dumplings. It was only fitting
that we should wash this down with the establishment’s own Műller- Thurgau 2009 (yes,
our first 2009!) served in one-litre flaschen. Apart from its own wines, the inn
had a reasonably good wine list at more than reasonably good prices and we were tempted
to order with our main course a bottle of Morellino di Scansano 2006 from the Valdifalco
Estate in Tuscany owned by the Loackers up the road. Not Alto Adige wine, but sort
of in the family, anyway. This was a vibrant wine with plenty of up-front fruit and
a good accompaniment to the groaning plate of roast pork, beef and lamb with potatoes,
vegetables, salad and rice. It’s hearty food up in the mountains!
And so, back to Italy and off to Verona by coach to take the plane back to London.
