Köfererhof Kerner: 2006-2014

BY IAN D’AGATA | FEBRUARY 7, 2017 

Weingut Köfererhof is one of Italy’s smallest and best white wine producers. Just about any grape variety owner Günther Kerschbaumer touches turns to gold. Over the years, he has fashioned remarkably delicious and ageworthy wines from the likes of Sylvaner, Riesling, Kerner, Müller-Thurgau and other varieties. While Köfererhof’s two most famous wines have always been the Sylvaner R (“R” stands for reserve) and the Kerner, it was the estate’s amazingly pure, vibrant, old-vines Müller-Thurgau wine—a variety from which few producers achieve truly memorable wines—that first alerted me, now many years ago, to Kerschbaumer’s exceptional talent. It is a sign of the times, unfortunately, that Kerschbaumer makes very little Müller-Thurgau nowadays, as the variety is unfashionable and the wine is a hard sell despite its high quality.

Kerner vineyards behind the Kofererhof winery 

The Köfererhof Estate

Köfererhof is located in Alto Adige’s beautiful Valle Isarco subregion, next to the town of Novacella and not far from Bressanone (or Brixen, in German, as Alto Adige is the German part of Italy). The Valle Isarco is one of Italy’s true hotbeds of high-quality white wine production, and the only place in Italy where you will find world-class wines made from Kerner and Sylvaner (varieties that aren’t grown much in the rest of Alto Adige, never mind Italy). Founded in 1940, the estate is run today by Günther Kerschbaumer, who took over the reins from his father Peter in 2010, after having learned the craft by working alongside him for roughly ten years. The family has only been bottling wine since the 1995 vintage; before that, like many others in the Valle Isarco, they sold grapes to the Abbazia di Novacella, the area’s largest producer, and they previously raised livestock as well. Today, Köfererhof is fully devoted to wine production, though it also boasts a wonderful stube, or alpine restaurant, full of rustic charm that whips up accurately cooked, flavorful and highly typical Alto Adige specialties (incorporating a high-quality restaurant into the winery is another point Köfererhof has in common with other top Valle Isarco wineries, such as Pacherhof and Strasserhof).

Everything You Wanted To Know About Kerner but Were Afraid To Ask