If you are not familiar with Alto Adige wines, hailing from the Northern Italian region bordering Austria and Switzerland, one look at the photo above should have you intrigued. Some of my favorite white wines in the world come from this region. (Though the reds recently caught my eye.) At a recent seminar I had the privilege of listening to a panel of five representatives from Alto Adige wineries speak about the land, the grapes, and the wine. I most enjoyed listening to Martin Foradori Hofstätter of Tenuta J. Hofstätter, as he was opinionated and even told a joke. A joke with a purpose, about the multilingual culture in Alto Adige. I’m going to try not to butcher it:
Two cats are outside a mouse hole in the Alto Adige . One is visiting from Rome, the other is a local. The cat from Alto Adige starts to bark like a dog at the mouse hole. The mouse runs out, and is eaten by the cat from Alto Adige. The incredulous cat from Rome exclaims, “What was that all about?!?” The contented mouse from Alto Adige replies, “If you don’t speak two languages here, you don’t eat.”
After the seminar I made a hasty trip to the tasting that followed. Though pressed for time, I made sure that I stopped to try one of my all-time favorite white wines, the Tiefenbrunner Feldmarschall. It’s made from Müller-Thurgau, and is a lovely, pure, elegant white wine. Try it with crudo; I still fondly recall enjoying this pairing at the bar at Anchovies and Olives in Seattle.
So grab a bottle of white wine from Alto Adige, acquire some fresh seafood, and make your life a little better for a brief spell.
Top mage courtesy EOS. Lousy photos courtesy me.
