Wine Bill Knott

ITALY’S ALPS UNCORKED

There is a small chain of wine bars in London called 28˚-50˚. Jolly good they are too, but the reason I mention them is their name, which refers to the latitudes between which wine grapes can be grown, in both hemispheres.

It is a useful rule of thumb, but there is another major factor at play: altitude. I was reminded of this recently, as I spent a few days in the gloriously mountainous Alto Adige. With its Alpine wooden huts, snow-capped peaks and verdant valleys, it looks much like the Austrian Tyrol, but has been a semi autonomous province of Italy since the First World War.

It is also one of Italy’s smallest wine regions and yet, thanks to varying altitudes, it cultivates at least 20 different grape varieties. Some thrive in the valleys (as do apples: 11 per cent of the European apple harvest is grown here), while others prefer loftier sites. Higher vineyards are cooler and steeper, and grapes take longer to ripen, but they develop an attractive balance of sugar and acidity in the process.

For whites, Pinot Grigio, Gewürztraminer, Chardonnay and Pinot Bianco rule the roost; for reds, Schiava – making light, low-tannin wines – is most widely grown, followed by the full-throttled Lagrein, a cousin of Syrah, Pinot Noir, Merlot and Cabernet (Sauvignon and Franc).

Unusually, thirteen co-operatives produce around 70 per cent of the region’s wines; even more remarkably, they are some of the very best, as I discovered on my visit to the oldest – Cantina Terlano, founded in 1893.

I do not often cycle to wine tastings – the precarious nature of the return journey makes it inadvisable – but twelve miles of the (mercifully flat) pista ciclabile delle mele (cycle path of apples) was too tempting to resist.

Glowing like a ripe apple, I settled in to the tasting: a dozen or so of the Cantina’s terrific wines, including some venerable whites that spend much of their lives in old Champagne tanks, and a few examples of Terlaner, a blend of Pinot Bianco, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc. Vinissimus (vinissimus.co.uk) stocks the fresh, delicious 2016 (£12), as well as a host of other Cantina Terlano wines.

I then wobbled my way to a traditional Tyrolean lunch at Restaurant Patauner (www.restaurant-patauner.net): cheese dumplings, venison meatballs, celeriac mash, Savoy cabbage. Fortified, I ignored the train and cycled back to the hotel for a well-earned snooze.

I heartily recommend the Italian Tyrol for a gourmet holiday: the more active might scale a Dolomite or two, while others will be content with the views from a hotel or restaurant terrace.

Should you prefer to taste the Alto Adige from the safety of your own sitting room, however, our new wine partner, DBM Wines, has cut its prices on several superb vintages from Cantina Tramin, another of the region’s co-operatives. Try the sappy, light-textured Pinot Grigio (£13, down from £14.30); the astonishingly pure, dry and floral Gewürztraminer (£14.50, down from £16.20), or the splendidly savoury Pinot Noir (£14.50, down from £15.69).

Or avail yourself of this month’s mixed case from four other Italian regions: three bottles each of four wines, delivered to your door.