2016 Cantina Terlan Winkl Sauvignon Blanc

Cantina Terlan is one of Italy’s most respected wineries, yet the wines it is famous for have little to do with conventional notions about Italian wines. Located in the far north in the mountains under Austria, the Cantina is a cooperative founded in the late 19th century. Seventy percent of what it produces is white wine though it is equally celebrated for several red wines. Its vineyards have German names as do the executives who run the organization. And its history is based on an act of defiance in 1893 when twenty-four Terlano grape growers decided to join forces and bottle their own wine under a coop name rather than sell their grapes at low prices to a few big landlords. Today there are 143 growers in the cooperative who own a total of nearly 400 vineyard acres. Some 1.4 million bottles are produced annually. The wines are invariably highly rated, and Gambero Rosso has awarded the coop more than twenty 3 Glass ratings, one of only forty wineries in Italy to achieve that status. Wine Advocate has called the Cantina “one of the most exciting and innovate models in Italian wine today. “

Alto Adige is a DOC zone in Northeastern Italy with a strong Austrian personality, thanks to its location in the southern Alps just under Austria. The region is officially bilingual, and the names of vineyards and wines often given in German and Italian. The area was a part of Austria until 1918 and is still frequently referred to as South Tyrol. Bolzano is the capital of Alto Adige, which is often linked with its neighboring region Trentino. Alto Adige has about 13,000 acres of vineyards, some as high as 3,200 feet above sea level. Like many parts of Italy outside Tuscany and Piedmont, Alto Adige wines 40 years ago were primarily undistinguished jug wines. But in the last few decades the quality has improved so extraordinarily that Gambero Rosso in 2016 announced that producers in Alto Adige had won more 3 Glass awards per acre of vineyards than any other Italian appellation except for Valle d’Aosta. The key white grapes in Alto Adige are Gewurztraminer, Pinot Bianco, Chardonnay, Sylvaner, Muller-Thurgau and Pinot Grigio. The most important red grapes are Schiava, Lagrein, Teroldego, Pinot Nero (Pinot Noir) and Cabernet Sauvignon.

This crisp, dry white wine hails from France but is grown in wine regions around the world. In California, it is sometimes called Fume Blanc; while in Sauternes, it is a component of their famous dessert wines.