Tramin Pinot Grigio Unterebner: 2002-2015

BY IAN D’AGATA | MARCH 14, 2017

I sometimes think that every wine
writer out there must feel like he or she hasn’t come of age until they’ve
taken a shot at poor Pinot Grigio. The list of offensive descriptors I have
read over the years is nearly endless: Pinot Grigio is a pedestrian grape (it
is anything but)…it produces forgettable wines…boring, insipid, pointless,
waste of time and industrial…a successful attempt at turning wine into water…wait
a minute now, that last one is actually mine, written circa six years ago. It’s hard to blame all those who have turned
Pinot Grigio into their favorite whipping boy. Many Italian wines so labeled
really are nothing to write home about. However, the mistake lies in
considering all Pinot Grigios as cut of the same cloth, or worse, to view Pinot
Grigio as a lesser cultivar.<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1489498373353-Alto+Adige+vineyards+copy.JPG"> 

Vineyards in Alto AdigeAlto Adige’s Tramin cooperative
(which takes its name from the small town of the same name) is one in a long
line of outstanding cooperatives this idyllic region northeastern Italian is
blessed with. Arguably, it is in Alto Adige that Italy’s best white wines are
being made today (although some experts might argue on Friuli Venezia Giulia’s
behalf). Tramin is an especially important cellar, as a number of its wines are
either Italy’s best, or at a minimum rank in the top three, of their respective
categories. And while the coop’s Gewürztraminer Nussbaumer usually grabs most
of the spotlight, Tramin’s gently oaked Pinot Grigio Unterebner is one of the
world’s better dry Pinot Grigios. Rich, nuanced and ageworthy, it showcases the
high level of quality Pinot Grigio can attain.

Pinot Grigio, Pinot Gris, Ruländer, Graubugunder: Many
Names, But Just One Noble Grape

Pinot Grigio is the Italian name of
the grape variety known as Pinot Gris in France or Oregon, In Germany it is
called Grauburgunder, while in Austria they might call it Ruländer (but this
older name is now increasingly rare). Although the languages are different, the
grape variety is one and the same. In fact, Pinot Gris has a long and
distinguished history. In Burgundy, Pinot Gris was planted long before
Chardonnay (have you ever asked yourself why the variety’s German name is Grauburgunder?),
and Burgundy insiders are aware that many of the great white wines Burgundy is
now famous for were actually made wholly or with large percentages of Pinot
Gris (called Pinot Beurot), not Chardonnay, in the 18th and 19th centuries. In
Alsace, Pinot Gris was officially named one of the region’s noble grapes and
can be planted in Grand Cru vineyards (only Riesling, Gewürztraminer and the
region’s two Muscats, Ottonel and d’Alsace, have been so honored). Today, few
would argue that Zind Humbrecht’s Pinot Gris Clos Saint-Urbain Rangen de Thann
isn’t one of the world’s twenty or thirty greatest dry white wines, while Domaine
Weinbach’s Pinot Gris Altenbourg Séléction de Grains Nobles Quintessence has
few if any peers in the sweet wine department. Pinot Gris are some of Oregon’s
most delicious whites, and show well in other New World areas as well. In Italy
Tramin’s Unterebner is joined by Vie di Romans’ Dessimis, Lis Neris’ Gris, and
Marco Martin-Lo Triolet’s Pinot Gris (both the non-oaked and the Elevée in Barrique
bottling) are amongst the country’s best white wines. So it would seem to me
that Pinot Grigio deserves far more credit than it gets. Unfortunately, Pinot
Grigio is a victim of its own success. Because the grape is remarkably capable,
given even barely competent winemaking, to give something palatable, everyone
seems to want to give it a try. And so the world has gone awash with
inexpensive, innocuous Pinot Grigio whose only claim to fame is their early
appeal and accessibility, but little else. The flip side to all of this is that
it then becomes very hard to sell the best Pinot Grigios, as reserve bottlings
are invariably more expensive. Until producers, importers and sommeliers
succeed in getting the wine loving public to understand that Pinot Grigio wines
can be so much more than just neutral plonk, the best Italian Pinot Grigios
will continue to be a tough sell.<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1489498421920-Tasting+from+the+barrels+copy.JPG"> 

Tasting from the barrels at Tramin with Willi&nbsp;Stürz 













Tramin&nbsp; 

Founded in 1889 by Christian
Schrott, a member of the Austrian parliament and the rector of Termeno (Tramin,
in German), Tramin is one of the oldest cooperatives in Alto Adige. It has 300
members, or roughly 150 families, that together own 260 hectares, which tells
you just how small the average land ownership is Alto Adige. Tramin culls two
thirds of their grapes from the Termeno area, but about one third of the vineyards
are located in the townships of Egna, Ora and Montagna. The coop produces
roughly 1,800,000 bottles a year, of which 400-450,000 are wines made with
Gewürztraminer and another 250,000 with Pinot Grigio. Clearly, it is the wines
made with these two varieties that are the most numerous (as well as the most important)
in Tramin’s portfolio. In fact, Pinot Grigio was not always so prized in the
Tramin area. Over the last 100 years, Tramin’s viticultural area was most
famous for wines made with Schiava or Gewürztraminer. In Medieval times, many
other white grape varieties grew there, such as the now rare Lagrein Bianco. Pinot
Grigio became very important in the Termeno area only at the beginning of the
20th century, when it was still known Ruländer. Using the latter name back then
can hardly surprise, given Alto Adige’s Austrian roots (the region belonged to
Austria until 1919) but the name Ruländer was still commonly in use until the
‘70s and even the ‘80s (instead, Grauburgunder was and is rarely used in
Italy). Nevertheless, despite its growing commercial success, Tramin didn’t
bottle Pinot Grigio as such prior to the 1980s: it was mostly sold as bulk wine
(until recently, Pinot Bianco endured a similar fate). 

First made in 1981, Unterebner is
Tramin’s top Pinot Grigio selection. Unterebner is the name of a specific site with
a small stone house sitting in the midst of eight different parcels of vines
that have historically been the source of Tramin’s best Pinot Grigio grapes.
The vines range from 15-40 years old and are planted with a southeastern
exposure at altitudes ranging from 410 to 600 meters above sea level. The soil
is mainly calciferous gravel and loam, with a partial porphyry bedrock. The
climate is fairly Mediterranean with plenty of sunlight and warm days, but nights
are cool thanks to cold northerly night wines that blow downslope. This
combination of potentially very hot days and cold nights contributes strongly
to the making of very ripe, almost luscious Pinot Grigios that are nonetheless fresh
and vibrant. Depending on the vintage characteristics and the
quality of the grapes, Unterebner may be made with grapes grown in only six or
seven of the parcels, though most often all eight are used. The vineyards are
planted with mainly clonal selections, especially those of the Istituto San
Michele all’Adige (ISMA) series (though like most wineries, Tramin always
plants their vineyards with at least four-five different clones). The ISMA
clones have met with success mainly because they are mostly loose-architecture
clusters, and therefore less prone to rot. As an aside, Pinot Grigio’s compact
bunch and thin skins make it a rotfest in bad vintages. In fact, the compact
nature of Alsace’s Pinot Gris clone 53 is the main reason why this clone has
been practically phased out by most everyone in Italy. By contrast, Geisenheim
Pinot Grigio clones have proven too productive in Alto Adige, and so these are also
slowly being phased out in Alto Adige. Ironically, one problem faced by Tramin
today with their ISMA clones is that they are almost too loosely packed and
yields are miserly (45 hL/ha).

The better Pinot Grigio wines will
always speak of pear, yellow apple and even strawberry (remember, Pinot Grigio
is really a red grape), with complicating hints of almond paste, caramel or
butterscotch (present independently of the use of oak), honey and truffle. Not
blessed with the high acidity levels of Riesling, Pinot Grigios tend to be full
bodied and creamier. Furthermore, Pinot Grigios from Alto Adige are especially
characterized by a degree of salinity that is not always found in Pinot Grigios
from other parts of Italy. In particilar, Tramin’s Pinot Grigios are also marked
by more calcareous notes than those of the Valle Isarco, where soils tend to be
colder, richer in schist and of volcanic origin.<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1489498481418-da+wines+UNTEREBNER+copy.JPG"> 

The Wine

Willi Stürz&nbsp;is one of Italy’s greatest winemakers. It is Tramin’s immensely good
fortune that he has been their kellermeister
(or chef de cave) since 1991.&nbsp;Stürz&nbsp;likes to pick the grapes quite ripe (he usually has the Pinot Grigio picked
around September 20 and the first few days of October). Full bunches are softly
and slowly pressed, while skin contact of the must is avoided. Fermentation
takes place slowly at controlled temperatures (18-20°C), and the wine is barrel
fermented in oak (two thirds in large 30-40HL Austrian and French oak casks, and
one third in Austrian and Burgundian oak tonneaux, of which roughly 20% is new
oak). Early vintages were fermented and aged in stainless steel. The first
Unterebner to see partial oak use was the 1994. By 1998 all of the wine was
fermented in large oak barrels and tonneaux as per the approach still being
used nowadays. Yeasts are those selected and cultured directly in Tramin’s
cellars (roughly eight years ago) and actually carry the Tramin name.
Unterebner usually undergoes malolactic transformation save in very warm
vintage.&nbsp;Stürz&nbsp;believes that even though Pinot Grigio is a low acid variety, putting
the wine through malo gives it much better overall balance. He also finds the wines
age much better. Starting with the 2014 vintage, Unterbner is aged for eleven
to twelve months in oak, instead of the six to seven months of prior vintages.&nbsp;Unterebner
is a suave, rich, almost voluptuously styled Pinot Grigio that showcases how
good judiciously used oak can be with this variety. In some vintages, such as
2010 and 2007, the oak tends to dominate but with startlingly different results.
While in 2010 the finished wine is less than successful, in 2007 it is remarkably
rich but lively, if strongly marked by vanilla and almond notes. For the most
part, the oak stays in the background, but I think its presence also means that
Unterbener requires cellaring, and shows best six to eight years, or more,
following the vintage, as this vertical seems to suggest.

Production is around &nbsp;25,000 bottles a year, but it is not nearly enough.
Unterebner is always the first wine Tramin sells out. Unfortunately, many
knowledgeable wine lovers are left scrambling every year just to find a few
bottles of one of their favorite nectars.&nbsp;Looks like Pinot Grigio may get the
last laugh yet.<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1489498622466-Tramion%27s+futuristic%2C+minimalist+tasting+room+copy.JPG"> Tramin's futuristic, minimalist tasting room 

The following wines were sourced
directly from the estate (except for the 2007 which I opened from my cellar) and
were tasted with winemaker Willi 
















Stürz&nbsp;and commercial/sales director, Wolfgang
Klotze, in September 2016.

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