Alto adige press highlights december 2015

Alto Adige Press Summary December 2015 Alto Adige Wines press coverage during the month of December 2015 garnered a total of 52,530,406 media impressions and 24 total articles. Of these articles, 15 were published online, and 9 were published in print publications.

Highlights include Boston Globe, in which 2014 Thurnhof St. Magdalener is recommeded for pairing with three-bean chili with herb pesto by wine editor, Ellen Bhang. Chantal Martineau of Food Republic published a feature on Elena Walch winery, and their wines that are aged in the Schneeberg silver mine. Both the 2011 Elena Walch Gewürztraminer Kastelaz and the 2011 Elena Walch Beyond the Clouds are recommended in Chantal’s article as well. Alyssa Vitrano of Grapefriend recommended 2014 Alois Lageder Schiava, 2014 Nals Margreid Galea Schiava, and 2014 Elena Walch Lagrein in her holiday gift guide for wine lovers. Al Vuona, wine columnist for Telegram & Gazette, recommended 2014 Alois Lageder Porer Pinot Grigio as the “Wine of the Week” and suggested pairing the wine with grilled or smoked seafood, creamy pasta dishes, and fresh green salads. Finally, Editor-in-Chief of the Dayton Business Journal recommended 2013 Abbazia di Novacella Grüner Veltliner for pairing with seafood and Asian cuisine, and ranked the wine as #23 on his list of top 25 wines of 2015.

Date: 12/1/2015 Print Audience: 274,538 Online Audience: 16,763,094 Page Count: 1/1

Boston Globe

Date: 12/10/2015 Online Audience: 1,492,289 Page Count: 1/2

Food Republic

Karoline Walch’s grandmother noticed it first. Sitting around the family’s vacation house in the Dolomites, sipping the wines they’d made for generations, she was struck by how different they tasted from the wines stored back at the winery. The house in the mountains sits at some 6,500 feet in elevation. The wines stored there seemed to age more deliberately, showing youth and vibrancy compared to the exact same bottles stored in the winery’s cellar, at roughly 900 feet above sea level. The difference was so glaring that the Walches decided to conduct a little experiment.

“We were convinced that wine matures differently at higher elevation. We had the proof already,” says Karoline Walch, whose mother is Elena of Elena Walch Family Estates in Alto Adige, in northern Italy. “We decided to do it [intentionally]. The tricky part was finding a place with the right elevation and conditions. We visited several locations and ended up choosing an abandoned silver mine. It had the highest elevation, and it’s three kilometers deep — nearly two miles — in the mountain, so the conditions are pretty consistent.”

Date: 12/10/2015 Online Audience: 1,492,289 Page Count: 2/2

Food Republic “It’s something completely new that, as far we know, we’re the first to try,” says Walch. “It’s always fun going to the mine to check on the wines. We only have access to it for about four months out of the year. The rest of the time it’s covered in snow. It’s actually quite emotional when we go because we haven’t seen the bottles in a year.”

Aging wine in a mine might seem a little gimmicky. After all, there are now wines aged underwater and whiskey aged in outer space. But for Walch, the experiment was important. At the very least, it proves just how much the way a wine is stored really matters.

To get the wines in the mine, they must first be driven up the mountain, a more than two-hour ride from the winery, then loaded into a little cart that runs on railroad tracks into the mountain face. From there, it’s a 30-minute ride to the gallery deep in the mine that the Walches rent. With absolutely no light to work by, the winery staff has to wear headlamps and use flashlights to work, which makes them look a little like actual miners. They started with 1,200 bottles and now have 7,000 stored in the mine. The new release includes the estate’s award-winning Gewürztraminer Kastelaz 2011 and the Chardonnay-based blend Beyond the Clouds 2011. The Walchs hope to keep storing their most precious bottles in the mine and to release different ones each year.

“We’ll keep it a secret so it should be a nice surprise every year. The longer the wines are in there, the bigger the difference should be,” she says. “What’s amazing is the silver mine wines seem to absorb their surroundings. You can taste the coldness, the stone. They taste younger, but somehow more complex. They’re just alive, with a vibrant soul.”

Date: 12/11/2015 Online Audience: 22,466 Page Count: 1/2

Grapefriend

Giving anything but grapes would just be completely un-grapefriendy or friend-y at all pretty much.

So here’s my rundown of some great and fun bottles to give to all types of people in your life!

Adventurer We’ve all got those people on our lists who you never know what to get – they either have everything or are only impressed by something different and cool. Giving them one of these bottles is almost guaranteed to give you some grapey cred, ensure that no one else is giving them the same thing, and add a little adventure to their wine glass/life.

I definitely want to make Schiava happen for 2016. It’s soooo good. I LOVE a light red that can be served with a little chill on it – perfection with charcuterie. You can’t really go too wrong with Schiava, but two bottles I really like are Alois Lageder Schiava ($15) which is a super old Alto Adige producer and 2014 Nals Margreid Galea Schiava ($24) which was one of my favorites when I was there last year. Both have that great herbal, savory quality that make them so great with light food or cocktail hour in general.

Date: 12/11/2015 Online Audience: 22,466 Page Count: 2/2

Grapefriend Most Lagrein is pretty heavy and tannic, but Elena Walch’s ($17) is totally balanced and elegant. A great bottle if you want to taste one of Alto Adige’s native grapes.

Date: 12/31/2015 Print Audience: 74,027 Online Audience: 1,135,815 Page Count: 1/1

Telegram & Gazette

Date: 12/31/2015 Print Audience: 5,736 Online Audience: 144,142 Page Count: 1/1

Dayton Business Journal

I hope you enjoyed some of my wine recommendations this year. I tried to mix things up and offer suggestions for new wines many people may not have tried before.

The wines this year were a reflection of my desire to expand my wine world by tasting unique wines from small regions around the world. It also was another year where the average quality of wines continued to rise, but values seem to be harder to find as prices continue to go up, and exponentially for the better wines.

I tasted so many new wines this year that one of my resolutions for the New Year is to continue to branch out and taste new varietals from out-of-the-way wine regions.

Having written about more than 80 wines this year made it particularly hard to choose my favorites. What I put together is a list of 25 wines that are each truly amazing, and offer a wide variety as well, in terms of grape type, region of origin and price. Wines that were priced significantly higher than others had to be equally greater in quality, in my opinion, to make the list. I did my rankings based on a combination of price, quality and the "X-Factor" that is comprised of such things as being exciting or unique. It includes wines from six different countries and more than 15 varieties of grape, including blends.

Here are my Top 25 wines of 2015: No. 23: Abbazia di Novacella “Stiftskellerei Neustift” Grüner Veltliner 2013— This is a really unique white wine that hails from Italy’s Alto Adige region located in the northernmost winegrowing region on the southern side of the Alps.

With over 850 years of experience producing indigenous wines, this winery is the last Augustinian Abbey in Italy. It offers up spices and herbs, with some nice fruit aromas and flavors. It would go well with seafood or even Asian cuisine. It should cost about $19.