For the First Time: A Tasting of All of the Prizewinning Wines

Year after year, the publication of the new wine guides is awaited with great excitement. Gambero Rosso, L’Espresso, Veronelli, Duemilavini, Slow Wine, Vinibuoni, and Sparkle are the names of the best known Italian wine guides, and for 2012, they have once again honored the countries best wines. Wines from Alto Adige were awarded the best scores a total of 114 times: 25 “Tre Bicchieri” from Gambero Rosso, 25 “Cinque Bottiglie” from L’Espresso, 18 “Super Tre Stelle” from Veronelli, 20 “Cinque Grappoli” from Duemilavini/AIS, 11 “Grandi Vini” from Slow Wine, 13 “Corone ” from Vinibuoni/Touring, and 2 “Cinque Sfere” from Sparkle/Cucina & Vini. With these results, Alto Adige has once again confirmed its reputation as one of Italy's leading winegrowing regions.

No fewer than six Alto Adige wines received the best scores in each of three guides. Those that were evaluated the best for 2012 were the Gewürztraminer Nussbaumer 2010 and the Gewürztraminer Vendemmia Tardiva Terminum 2009 from the Cantina Tramin, the Terlano Pinot Bianco Vorberg 2008 from the Cantina Terlano, the Valle Isarco Kerner from the Wine Estate Hoandlhof of Manni Nössing in Bressanone, the Lagrein Taber Riserva 2009 from the Cantina Bolzano, and the Moscato Passito Serenade 2008 from the Cantina Caldaro. A total of nineteen Alto Adige wines were each awarded the highest scores from two guides, while sixty-two wines were each granted the highest honors from one guide.

White Wines at the Top
Alto Adige is developing more and more into a region renowned for its white wines. The gamut of excellent wine varieties is broad. Around two thirds of the honors were collected by white wines, led by Gewürztraminer and followed by Riesling and Pinot Bianco. With the red wines, Lagrein stands unchallenged as the variety with the most awards, with Pinot Noir coming in second.

It is also interesting to take a look at the number of awards that were granted to the individual wineries: in that regard, the Cantina Terlan with a total of ten honors was the clear winner, followed by the Cantina Tramin and the Köfererhof of Günther Kerschbaumer in Novacella with seven each and the Hoandlhof of Manni Nössing in Bressanone with six.

With only 0.7 percent of the total winegrowing area of Italy, Alto Adige managed to rack up five percent of the honors. Thus in relation to its area under cultivation, Alto Adige is the most honored winegrowing area in all of Italy.

The Wines with the top scores