Praepositus Gewürtraminer 2018 Abbazia Di Novacella

 Abbazia di Novacella is a monastery in Alto Adige in Italy that produces very good wines. The monastery is surrounded by vineyards.

The monastery is also very beautiful and is worth a visit.

The wine series Praepositus is their prestige wine. This line shows off what the best growing areas can do with grapes. The grape for this Praepositus wine is the grape Gewürztraminer and the vintage is 2018. The ABV is one of the highest that I have seen and it goes up to 15%. The growing area is the Bressanone valley basin. The elevation sis 600-650 meters. The grapes have been grown in south to south-west. The fermantation and ageing has been done in steel tanks.
On the nose I get aromatic fruit notes. In the taste I get tropical fruit, grapefruit and some apple and gooseberry in a wonderful combination. This is an excellent wine.

Abbazia Novacella

Abbazia Novacella is a wine producing Augustinian Canons Regular monastery in Alto Adige in the north in Italy. The vineyards are situated at high elevation (500-800m) and this gives their white wines a freshness and acidity that is hard to beat.

I visited the monastery in 2013 and bought several wines at their wine shop. The landscape around the monastery is very beautiful and the monastery is also very beautiful. So if you go there take time to visit both the monastery and the winery.

The three wines that I bought are all white wines from 2012, so they have been stored for four years before opening them. The first wine is the Sylvaner wine made from Sylvaner grapes. The taste is of melons, citrus and some aromatic spices. Just a bit sour aftertaste, it goes very well with asian food. A really good wine.

Next wine is the Müller Thurgau made with the grapes of the same name. This wine has fresh fruity aromas in the nose. The taste is of citrus and white peaches and some sharpness in the aftertaste. A rich full wine, a very good wine.

The final wine is a Gewürztraminer. The nose is very good and the taste it is very aromatic and fruity with pears. Still crisp and fresh after four years of storage. Long aftertaste and it has aged very well. A wonderful wine.
Three very good wines from an excellent winery.

Four Italians

I have had the choice to test a couple of different wines the last month. First up is La Vis Gewürztraminer. I didn't have much expectations for this wine as it was very cheap but to my suprise it were very nice. Very light and tastes of elderberries and spices. Perfect as an aperitif wine.

Next wine is from the beautiful medieval town of San Gimignano, a so called vernaccia San Gimignano by producer I Mocali and from 2008. Very good and a bit stronger than the Vernaccia I had in Sam Gimignano. Not as much bitter almond in the finish but a very strong clear flavour. Unfortunately it is very hard to find this wine in Sweden.

The third wine is an older wine from Valpolicella from the year 2000. It is by producer Vigneti di Torbe and is a ripasso wine. This bottle has the label Domini Veneti, aka the golden era which is  a label for good wines by Cantina Valpolicella Negrar. Now this Vigneti di Torbe is very strong and it took at least half an hour for the wine to open up in the glass. When it did it was majestic. Strong black currant taste and a long finish. Would go really well together with red meat.

When eating an Italian dessert, panatone from Siena, what better wine to go with it then an Italian sweet wine and this time it was a Recioto Di Soave. Good taste and worked very well together with the dolci.

Return to Osteria Broccaindosso

When in Bologna a visit to Osteria Broccaindosso is a must. They serve a big feast and they serve very nice wines. And the owners will greet you with a warm smile. The wine of the day was a Traminer from Veneto by Marco Scolaris. The colour is yellow with a small greenish hint. The taste is very good. As all Italian Traminer wines they are smoother than the Alsace wines and has a good herbal taste. Like it a lot. The food was a delight as usual. Fiften different starters as the anti past, very good carpacchio and the amazing dessert buffet with the best ever chocolate mousse I have ever tasted. As I said, they serve up a feast.

Eisacktaler winetasting

Last summer as can be seen in the photo I had a winetasting. Three different wines from producer Eisacktaler from the province Südtirol (Alto Adige), they were all from the year 2010 and one each of the grapes Kerner, Gewürztraminer and Müller Thurgau. The bottle of Kerner had a very strong taste and didn't go that well together with the barbeque meat. The Gewürztraminer was much stronger than the usual Italian Gewürztraminer that I have tasted and lacked the nice taste of Elderberry that I usually associate with Italian Gewürztraminer. The best bottle in the tasting was the Müller Thurgau, perfect for a good summer day and very easy to drink. Buonissimo.
For the dessert I had a bottle of Passito wine from Pantelleria anno 2008. Now this is the nectar of the gods. Maybe a few years storage and it would have tasted better but who can wait sometimes.