alto adige wine clip summary may 2015

Date: 5/15/2015 Print Audience: 952,788 Online Audience: 3,612,130 Page Count: 1/3

Food & Wine


Food & Wine

Date: 5/15/2015 Online Audience: 18,926 Page Count: 1/4

Grape Collective

The collaborative spirit is much lauded in many fields – let’s all get together to build a barn/clean up

these wetlands/organize a surprise party for Dad. At the same time, the cliché "no committee ever

wrote a novel” stands as a reminder that too many cooks, well, tend to result in a broth of the

lowest common denominator. And that’s often the view taken of wine cooperatives... but there are

exceptions. In fact, one small corner of Italy is chock full of them: Alto Adige.

Prior to World War I, the area had been part of Austria, and the change in nationality (and later the

Great Depression) was devastating for the region’s economy. Cooperatives helped small farmers

find a home for their grapes. Now a dozen or so cooperatives make up 70% of the region’s

production; most having begun a century or so ago, when the aforementioned series of economic

crises left farmers struggling to find buyers for their grapes.

These farmers – many with just an acre or two of vines, and most lacking professional winemaking

equipment to vinify the grapes on their own — bring their grapes to the co-op’s winery, which pays

the grower and then makes and sells the wine. The farmers aren’t selling their grapes, though;

they’re receiving their dividends for their contributions to the harvest. The growers co-own the

cooperative. This is the key difference between them and a negoçiant, who buys grapes from

farmers and then makes and sells the wine themselves.


Grape Collective

And that means that traditionally, all grapes

were equal. Farmers were paid based on

volume, and there was no motivation to

grow better grapes. Actually, quite the

opposite. Many consider reducing yields

means better quality, but compensation

based on volume favors the opposite. But

everyone knew that some grapes were

more equal than others.

In the 1980s, all that began to change for

Alto Adige. The more observant realized

that producing cheap bulk wine was much

easier elsewhere in Italy; for example, Alto

Adige’s vineyards are mostly hillsides (as

the floor of the valley is devoted largely to

apples) and don’t lend themselves to

machine harvesting and other economies

of scale they way more southerly Italian

regions like the Veneto do. So if the future

of bulk wine lay further south, Alto Adige

would have to shoot for quality. “The

system changed to paying on quality

instead of on volume,” says Wolfgang

Klotz, Marketing and Sales Director at

Cantina Tramin. “Now yields [the amount of

grapes harvested per acre] are something

we don’t talk about.”

How is this quality enforced? For one thing, members at most Alto Adige cooperatives could no

longer pick and choose. It used to be that many would save the best grapes for their own wines,

and only sell their lesser grapes to the co-op. But in 1988, Cantina Bolzano started making

changes. These days the winemaker and agronomist visit the vineyards during the growing

season, look over the grapes as they arrive at harvest, and check them for their levels of sugar

and acidity at the winery.

Terroir (if one feels okay using a French term to talk about Italian wines from a region where

everybody speaks German) is important, too. At Cantina Tramin, “best vineyards get a premium,

based on the age of vines and how they work the vines.” Eighty percent of their member

vineyards go into their “Classic” series; only the remaining plots qualify for their “Cru," or single

vineyard wines. Those vineyards are often harvested later, which puts them at risk for rot,

damage from rain, or raisinating (which reduces volume). To protect the farmer from loss, the


Grape Collective

cooperative guarantees a minimum payment so the grower won’t feel pressured to harvest earlier,

before optimum ripeness.

Not every grower was sure they wanted to change, though. Klotz says they had to start with a

small group of member farmers and then expand from there. At Cantina Bolzano the winery

organizes vineyard visits so farmers can see how others work the same grape varieties.

Winemaker Klaus Sparer says it not only reassures members that the changes work, it even

inspires them to think competitively – they start to take pride in their vines and want their grapes to

be better than those of their peers. The winery also conducts tastings for their growers, who then

get to taste their own wines alongside their competition from all around the world, so they can see

what needs to be achieved in the market.

Both Cantina Bolzano and Cantina Tramin are associated with particular grape varieties, even

though they make a wide range, and are named for the towns they’re based in. As it happens, the

town of Tramin also lent its name to the grape Gewurztraminer, which does very well in Alto Adige,

yielding a wine less opulent and heavy than most Alsace renditions. (It’s Alto Adige’s most

popularity grape in the rest of Italy, but the locals actually favor Pinot Bianco!) The Bolzano area,

on the other hand, is the warmest microclimate in Alto Adige (As a backpacking college student I

made the mistake of heading there when a heatwave was making southern Italy unpleasant; it

didn’t help.). That warmth makes it the best place for Lagrein, an indigenous variety, dark-fruited

and dense, without being heavy.


Grape Collective

Not every Alto Adige cooperative has such obvious “flagship” varieties, but since they tend to be

based town-by-town, they offer a wonderful tour of the region: Cantina Valle Isarco, northeast from

Bolzano where it’s cooler and the Riesling crosses Kerner, Sylvaner, and Müller Thurgau thrive;

Cantinas Terlano and Andrian, in the other direction, where more sun exposure means more red

wines, at least at the lower elevations, or the younger Cantina Colterenzio, founded in 1960 by 28

members and since grown to almost 300. As a region, Alto Adige’s numerous microclimates mean

Cabernet, Chardonnay, and other “international” varieties of many sorts exist cheek-by-jowl

alongside more Germanic varieties. What do they share in common? “There’s nowhere else in the

world where the margin between grape prices and bottle price is so small,” says Klotz.

Good cooperatives are good values.

Date: 5/18/2015 Print Audience: 142,682 Online Audience: 200,558 Page Count: 1/1

Los Angeles Magazine

The paradigm is shifting in the wine world. The

old guard who’ve long influenced our drinking

habits (and resisted change in the industry) is

giving way to a modern movement—a new

wave of outspoken personalities, i.e. the social

sommeliers, who champion iconoclastic

winemakers, emerging regions, and novel

approaches.

These days, when the competition for space on

wine lists is so fierce, new styles of traditional

varietal wines are becoming the norm. Grapes

like Grüner Veltliner, Riesling and Albariño are

stealing the spotlight, and radical new

techniques—from anfora-aged, skin-fermented

whites to wines aged in concrete eggs—make

for compelling (and sellable) narratives.

Additionally, the rise of the social sommelier has

helped to catapult an esoteric range of natural,

organic, and biodynamic wines from boutique

producers in the U.S. and smaller countries,

including Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, and even

Lebanon, while also ushering in a young,

rebellious set of winemakers from countries like

Italy and France, who have thrown off the

gloves of tradition to create some of the most

exciting wines in recent memory.

Here’s what some of L.A.’s new guard has to

say about what you’ll be seeing on wine lists

(and drinking more of) in 2016 and beyond.

Kellerei Bozen-Cantina Bolzano 2014

Weissburgunder, Trentino-Alto Adige,

Italy, $13

George Pitsironis, wine director, Union

Restaurant: “Italy has so much to offer in

terms of whites that are indigenous

varieties and food-friendly. I have seen a

wonderful adventurous spirit from guests

open to trying fun Italian whites that are

not Pinot Grigio—varieties like

Verdicchio, Vernaccia, Pecorino, Fiano.

This wine which comes from the Alto

Adige region where most of the Pinot

Grigio is produced, yet a wine like this

Weissburgunder (Pinot Bianco) is what

the locals drink on tap for themselves.”


Details


Beverage Media – Metro New York

alto adige wine clip summary may 2015

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