ITALY: North-East – Trentino, Alto Adige & Friuli Venezia Giulia - White
2017 Gold: 4 Silver: 6 Bronze: 5 Commended: 9
2016 Gold: 1 Silver: 6 Bronze: 2 Commended: 6
Last year’s only Gold medal winner repeated its performance this year. With entries up nearly 20%, that’s quite an achievement, so a big shout out to Nussbaumer for its Gewürz. And also to Cavit, for the well-priced, and genuinely good, Pinot Grigio, which also picked up a Food Match Award for a Thai Green Curry.
Whatever the variety, these vineyards in the foothills of the Alps seem able to give wines of real freshness and elegance, and year after year in the Sommelier Wine Awards, it’s one of the most popular regions for our tasters. Not cheap, necessarily, but not outrageous either, and with plenty of pedigree.
FROM THE TASTING TEAMS
‘There’s not much demand for premium Pinot Grigio. It has a reputation as being a cheaper wine.’ Arnaud Fiol, The Don Restaurant
‘Most were food-orientated, the way they were developed; towards the top end they were very oily, and I like that.’ Michael Moore, The London Cookhouse
‘For me this was the best flight of the morning. It was fantastic – delivering at all levels: price, quality, texture, expression. Some of these wines could easily compete against white Burgundy.’ Olivier Marie , team leader
‘I’ve been following the developments in Trentino and Alto Adige for a couple of years now. The wines coming out of these regions are offering great value for money. They over-delivered for the price.’ Gergely Barsi Szabó, Sager + Wilde
‘Pinot Grigio and Soave sell like water. My customers associate “white Italy” with value and cheap wines, so for me these would be a hand sell.’ Agustin Trapero, Avenue
‘There were some really impressive wines here. The category seemed to perform even better towards the top end, but there was food friendliness throughout the flight. If you’re looking for richer styles of white wine, without Burgundy price points, you can look to this.’ Laura Rhys MS, team leader