Trink Magazine | The 12 winegrower cooperatives of Alto Adige produce some of the finest wines in Italy, if not the world. it’s a part not only of the region’s history but also its DNA, Susan gordon reveals why.
Susan H. Gordon, MFA, is a PhD in Creativity candidate at The University of the Arts; her dissertation project is a language-focused book about the two Prosecco DOCG areas, Conegliano-Valdobbiadene and Asolo. She covers the eastern United States for the Hugh Johnson Pocket Wine Book, and otherwise concentrates her writing on Italian wines — her work has appeared in Gastronomica and on Forbes, Eater, Vogue.com, The Daily Meal, and the Wine Advocate online. She is a VIA Italian Wine Ambassador, and a 3iC Piemonte Wine and Food Specialist, both taught by Italian wine specialist Ian D’Agata. She holds a WSET Level 3 certification, along with current Level 4 studies, and an MFA from The New School. Susan grew up in Rome, then Philadelphia, and is now based in the Bronx in New York City.
Skin-contact white wines may have their revolutionary roots in Georgia, Slovenia, and Friuli, but the umlaut zone also stakes a strong claim for orange expressions. Austria was an early and highly successful adopter (think Tschida and Tscheppe, Muster and Meinklang). For this, thank geographic proximity, shared traditions, a former empire’s worth of fascinating white varieties, and the remarkable open-mindedness of producers, especially in Styria and Burgenland. Germany came later to the game. The country has been slower to embrace natural and experimental styles generally and its signature variety, Riesling, requires an exceptionally deft hand to succeed in skin-fermented form. However, German…...
If Emilio Zierock finds it hard to talk about his controversial father, you can’t tell by listening to him. He speaks with remarkable openness about the man. Rainer Zierock, who passed away in 2009, was a brilliant visionary, but also in all likelihood the grandest provocateur in post-war German and Italian viticulture. The powerfully eloquent and often choleric Zierock was considered an eccentric of note, and one who went after everyone. More than a few people also consider him a misunderstood genius, far ahead of his time. His influence on the young wine generation, and particularly the natural wine scene,…...
At 2,010 meters above sea level, the first thing that changes is your breathing. The second is your appetite. By the time you are standing outside a mountain hut with a glass of Blauburgunder in hand, something else has shifted too. The wine tastes different up here. In December, I went to Alta Badia, a small, jagged pocket of Südtirol-Alto Adige, with skis, a notebook, and a question. Nestled among the villages of San Cassiano, La Villa, Corvara, and the Campolongo Pass, the region is defined by its verticality, snow, and fine cuisine. Every year, as the ski season starts,…...
In slanting early morning light, a shadow crosses a vineyard. The figure moves row by row, ripping out vines and casting them onto a large, burning pyre. The blaze stretches to greet the sun as it rises above a mountainous horizon. There is fire from all points of the compass. Death is in the air. The culprit is a phytoplasm fatal to Vinifera vines. Its spread is aided by the American grapevine leafhopper (Scaphoideus titanus), a dwarf cicada native to North America. As it feasts on the vines, it transmits the pathogen of what is known in German as Goldgelbe…...
In the heart of Alto Adige-Südtirol, infinite green rows of vines crown the chestnut-brown roofs of Neustift Abbey. In this fairytale-like northern Italian valley, German and Italian coexist in mutual synchrony, a vivid reminder of a not-so-distant past when this was part of the Austrian Empire. The fortified ensemble houses a monastery, boarding school, museum, and winery within its Romanesque, Baroque, and Rococo walls. Wine has been made using grapes of the region here for the last nine centuries, all under the vigilance of Augustinian canons. Grüner Veltliner, Kerner, and Sylvaner reflect the terroir, proudly representing the abbey in local…...
Above, a postcard from the German fertilizer industry of the 1920s. At the time, perspectives on soil were changing: Until then, people had spoken of plant growth as being affected by forces; afterward, it was substances. Deficiencies could simply be addressed with the help of agrochemistry. As recently as a decade ago, biodynamic viticulture could be shrugged off as “some dogma about phases of the moon and cow horns.” But now that we find a who’s who of the wine world on the member lists of relevant biodynamic organizations, it’s no longer so easy to cancel adherents to this form of farming. Those…...
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