Kuenhof Estate - The Ultimate Alpine Wines
Plus dog-friendly ski travel, how the Ibex are navigating climate change, and more
Welcome 2024! After a holiday hiatus, we’re back and looking forward to a new year of food, wine, and all things Alpine. You’ll see some changes in the format of our newsletters this year, particularly as we bring the “Alpine Interludes” link roundup to the top and the lead stories below. This week, we’re excited to share our discovery of the Kuenhof Estate, which Alexandra dives into. But first, a few things that caught our attention in the news this week:
Craft beer is having a moment in the French Alps — The Drinks Business
“A dramatic ‘back door’ into Switzerland through the Italian Alps” — The Guardian
Ibex goats are seeing their typical daily routine upended by climate change — Vox
“With rising demand for dog-friendly chalets and resorts, here’s how to find harmony on the slopes and the mistakes to avoid with pets” — The Telegraph UK
TASTING NOTES: The Kuenhof Estate
Good things come in threes, or at least that was how we felt when we located a trio of wines from Alto Adige's Kuenhof Estate at Moore Brothers Wine Company in NYC. We've talked about the challenge of finding wines from the greater Alpine region in the U.S., often limited by small local production and limited customer knowledge of the wines stateside, so we jumped at the opportunity to try a Grüner Veltliner, a Riesling and a Sylvaner all from the same estate and the same vintage (2021).
If the Kuenhof bottles seem like the ultimate Alpine wines, that's in part because of their unique place of origin - the estate is located near the Brenner Pass, a historically important route connecting Austria and Italy via the Alps. With some plantings as high as 890 m above sea level, the grapes are subject to cooler temperatures and concentrated sun exposure, while varied, mineral-rich soils (glacial moraine, quartz phyllite and slate) both challenge and nourish the vines. The combined effect of these elements on grape varieties we thought we knew was simply mind-bending.
But these wines are also profoundly Alpine in how they reflect the intricacies of the region's history. Alto Adige-Südtirol sits within the borders of northwest Italy, yet is primarily German-speaking. It's an area that lived under three empires in one century (Napoleonic, Hapsburg and Austro-Hungarian) a Fascist dictatorship (Mussolini), and was only officially incorporated into Italy after World War Two, now retaining some autonomous status. Like many of the other local wineries, Kuenhof makes wines with varietals closely associated with Germanic wine regions, including their Gewurtztraminer, which we have yet to try. They reflect a common theme we’ve observed across the Alpine range, of shifting borders and enduring attachments to other cultures, with inherited languages, culinary traditions, and of course grape varieties to show for it. And so it may read "Product of Italy" on the back of the Kuenhof bottles, but the story is of course more complicated.
To truly experience the “Alpine Effect,” we recommend trying all three:
2021 Kuenhof Südtirol Veltliner - This one was perhaps the star of the lineup. In many Grüner Veltliners from Austria’s Wachau region for example, I find that what begins as a white pepper rush on the nose and palate quickly rolls into a fuller fruitiness. Here, however, the wine seems to suspend its peppery precision, maintaining tension from start to finish. I enjoy Grüner Veltliner but this was the first one to stop me in my tracks; the aromatics aren’t overwhelming, but the wine is only deceptively simple.
2021 Kuenhof Kaiton Südtirol Riesling - I like to think I’ve tasted an above-average amount of Riesling from Germany’s Mosel Valley, itself a cooler region, and what I’ve come to expect on the palate is a wash of generous fruit flavors and a lighting bolt of acidity striking down the middle. Such is not the case with this Südtirol Riesling. Instead, what I got were more tentative grapefruit aromas and flavors, along with some whispers of Riesling’s full tropical fruit and petrol potential, and a pervasive acidity that veered towards fruit pith. This wine is so nervy it might jump out of its own skin (or at least the glass), in a fascinating way.
2021 Kuenhof Südtirol Sylvaner - I’ve really come to love Sylvaner as a Germanic answer to Chenin Blanc, for a medium-bodied white wine with waxy richness. This Kuenhof Sylvaner delivers on the mellower qualities I seek out, with subtle notes of honey and peach, but with a pleasing acid cut. The wine as a whole is beautifully balanced, a relatively fuller white wine that’s still a welcome foible for cheese (of course I’ve tried).