Alto Adige: A Pause for Thought

The 2013 Growing Season and Wines

The last two vintages have certainly not been easy in Alto Adige. Two thousand thirteen was a cool, late-ripening year, as it was across many regions in northern Europe. Typically, these conditions tend to favor whites over reds. That may turn out to be the case here as well, but it will only be because the reds struggled even more than the whites. Although I had high expectations for the whites, the 2013s aren't as tense or energetic as I had hoped they would be, while the reds I have tasted so far are mid-weight, aromatic wines that pretty much reflect the middling quality of the vintage. Rain towards the end of the harvest was a complicating factor in some spots, as the grapes bloated and the robbed the wines of their concentration and energy.

I strongly believe Alto Adige is one of the world’s elite wine regions, especially when it comes to whites. I say that with the perspective that comes from regularly tasting the wines of Alsace, Austria, Germany and Burgundy, which is a real privilege, to say the least. But the 2013 Alto Adige whites point to a disturbing trend. I noted traces of sweetness in many wines. To be sure, the local Italian market, where so much wine is sold in bulk or by the glass, has a marked preference for whites with a few grams of residual sugar. At the high end, a number of Alto Adige's best wines have some residual sugar, but in most of those cases, the inherent intensity of the fruit is actually pretty well suited to stylistic choices that seek to emphasize textural richness and body. That is less often the case at lower levels of quality, however, where residual sugar can really stick out.

In my opinion Alto Adige's single most striking attribute is the ability of wines to express the essence of vintage, variety and site with crystalline purity. With few exceptions, the 2013 whites don't achieve their full potential because they lack focus and energy. Don’t get me wrong, the wines aren't bad, but they also aren't as compelling as they could be. Make that should be.