Pinot Grigio from the Penon site, up to 700 metres, ten months on the fine lees in large oak and barrique. Yellow peach, heirloom pears and melon, over a mineral core. James Suckling gave this vintage 94 points.
Golden yellow with a bright sheen. The nose is ripe and broad but never heavy: yellow peach and heirloom pears first, honeydew melon behind them and a fine spiciness from the wood ageing. On the palate the wine shows density and structure — this is no light aperitif wine but a Pinot Grigio with substance. Ageing on the fine lees gives a creamy texture, while invigorating acidity holds the wine upright. Beneath the fruit lies the mineral core typical of the high plots of Penon, with a saline note that draws out the finish. Serve with roast poultry, veal, grilled fish with herbs or creamy pasta dishes.
Kellerei Kurtatsch is a cooperative in the South Tyrolean village of Kurtatsch, founded in 1900 by forty-two growers. Today 190 member families farm 190 hectares of vineyard between 220 and 900 metres. Erwin Carli is the cellar master.
Penon is one of the named sites of Kurtatsch, set around the hamlet of the same name at 450 to 700 metres. The soil is loam, sand and gravel, rich in dolomite.
Altitude and cool evening winds bring a long, slow ripening and naturally restricted yields — 50 hectolitres per hectare. That gives this Pinot Grigio a concentration and tension the variety rarely reaches.
Eighty per cent of the must ferments in temperature-controlled large oak casks, twenty per cent in French barrique. The wine then rests ten months on the fine lees.
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