Blog

Elena Walch Schiava with the Flavors of Thailand #ItalianFWT

 

---

Cindy of Grape Experiences has invited the #ItalianFWT group to explore the wines, food, and history of Friuli and/or Trentino-Alto Adige this month. Join us today Saturday, September 2 on twitter for our discussion at 11 AM EST!

These are both regions of Italy that I would love to explore but haven’t yet been able to visit. Until then, I can but explore them through the occasional bottle of wine that drops into my hands! For this month, I chose to focus on the Alto Adige side of things with a bottle of Schiava. 

Trentino-Alto Adige

Trentino-Alto Adige is Italy’s northernmost wine region, located right on the border with Austria. Despite being so northerly and mountainous, red wines once dominated production here. And while there are still plenty of red wines to enjoy, nowadays, white wines are now more important. The region hosts two of Italy’s autonomous provinces. Trentino is almost entirely Italian speaking, while Alto Adige, or Südtirol,  has a predominantly German-speaking population thanks to its former place in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

There’s a lot to unpack in the Alto Adige region. The more northern of the two regions, it sits among the Alps with Austria to the north, Veneto to the east, Lombardy to the west, and Trentino to the south. A region with both Alpine and Mediterranean climate zones, it is full of  both climatic and topographical extremes with altitudes reaching over 3,050 meters. Grapes don’t live at those altitudes though! Mostly they live on the valley floor and (steep) slopes along the north-south path of the Adige river and the north-east to south-west path carved by the Isarco river valley. 

Most wines produced here fall under the Alto Adige DOC, but it’s not really that simple. The DOC sub-divides into districts and communes for more than 30 possible areas. And because this is Alto Adige where most people speak German, each of these places has both a German and an Italian name. Sometimes the grapes do too. And the labels! It’s the perfect place for a language geek like me! The main sub-divisions under the DOC are:

• Alto Adige Colli di Bolzano
• Alto Adige Meranese di Collina
• Alto Adige Santa Maddalena
• Alto Adige Terlano
• Alto Adige Valle Isarco
• Alto Adige Valle Venosta

Elena Walch Schiava, 2020

Elena Walch seems to be pretty legendary in Alto Adige so I was thrilled to be able to get my hands on one of her wines. Walch herself, and consequently her winery, was one of the leading figures of the Alto Adige quality revolution. Originally an architect, she married into one of the oldest Alto Adige wine families and  proceeded to usher in an age of new and modern concepts to the traditional establishment. The Elena Walch winery is now in its fifth generation and rests in the hands of Julia and Karoline Walch.

The family dedicates itself to making terroir-driven wines. For them, this means more than just ensuring that that wines be the individual expression of their soil and climate, but also reflect the cultivation in the vineyard. As one cannot have a pure expression without purity in the vineyard, Elena Walch maintains a sustainable vineyard and winery. Their respect for nature and their wines encouraged them to take the path to sustainability more than 10 years ago now. Their goal is to be a “good” company that knows how to protect the environment, both for their product and for future generations. You can read more about the sustainability program at the winery on their website. 

Falling under that Alto Adige DOC is the Elena Walch Schiava I got. A grape with many names, it most commonly goes by Schiava, Vernatsch, and Trollinger. Believed to be native to the area, the berries grow to a large size and resemble table grapes more than wine grapes. Their large size is likely why the grape produces such light and approachable wines, best drunk young and chilled.

Elena Walch’s grapes grow in calcareous soils at medium altitude, where the grapes can benefit most from the Mediterranean climate with warm summer days combined with cool mountain nights. Fermentation takes place in stainless steel tanks with six days of skin contact, followed by maturation in traditional large oak casks.

Served slightly chilled the way this grape likes it, the nose presented luscious aromas of red fruits, cherry, and spice, with raw almond and cherry pit. A sip and wow. The lighter color of the wine did not indicate the fulsomeness of silk the palate would have. It filled the mouth like a blooming, silken flower, journeying through the mouth and sliding down the throat. Flavors followed those spicy cherry almond notes from the nose, supported by a friendly, underlying thread of acidity and moderate-low alcohol at just 12.5%.

I paired this with a slightly spicy Thai basil beef dish and a salad of red bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, carrots with a Thai-inspired dressing. The wine did indeed hold up against the dish, didn’t mind the spice so much. It was even especially nice with the salad!

Explorations of Friuli and Trentino-Alto Adige Continue!

• Jennifer Gentile Martin shares An Exploration of Collio: Part 1 / Vino Travels Italy /
• Robin Bell Renkin explores Trentino-Alto Adige – Trento, Bolzano and Wines of the Dolomites / Crushed Grape Chronicles
• Katarina Andersson explains how Pinot Grigio and Refosco Show Their True Colors in Friuli / Grapevine Adventures
• Mike Madaio is “Finding Friulano: an International Journey / Life At Table
• Camilla Mann is discovering A Small Sample from the Alto Adige: Whitefish Saltimbocca, Strangolapreti, and a Couple of Schiava / Culinary Cam
• Wendy Klik is cooking up Italian Marinated Steaks with Angoris Schioppettino/ A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Andrea Lemieux is savoring Elena Walch Schiava with the Flavors of Thailand / The Quirky Cork