Siena, March 11th 2022 – The AIS (Association of Italian Sommelier) masterclass is about “Trentino in 6 glasses”.
Trentino is a relatively small wine region, with 5 DOCs and 2 IGTs most important appellations, about 10.000 ha of vineyards made up of 75% white grapes and 25% red grapes. In addition to the native grapes, such as Nosiola, Teroldego and Marzemino, Trentino land is favourable to numerous international grape varieties.
Trentino full appellations list:
- Trentino DOC and Trentino Superiore DOC, production area: Trento county
- Trento DOC, only bottle-fermented sparkling, about 800 ha in Trento county
- Teroldego Rotaliano DOC, Teroldego variety only, about 1200 ha from only 3 municipalities within Trento county
- Casteller DOC, less than 100 80 ha, 48 municipalities all in Trento county, its area of production overlaps other DOCs as a result it counts less than 100ha
- Valdadige DOC, interregional appellation, production area: Trento, Bolzano and Verona counties
- Valdadige Terradeiforti DOC, based on the indigenous varieties Enantio and Casetta, production area: Trento and Verona counties
- Lago di Caldaro DOC, about 600 ha based on Schiava variety (minimun 85%), sevarl municipalities, mostly in Bolzano county, few in Trento county
- Delle Venezie DOC, the largest area in the world dedicated to Pinot Grigio variety, including Trento, Veneto and Friuli wine regions
- Vigneti delle Dolomiti IGT, production area: Trento Bolzano and Belluno counties
- Vallagarina IGT, production area: Trento and Verona counties
- Tre Venezie IGT, very large appellation including Trento, Veneto and Friuli wine regions
Gaierhof, founded in 1976, is a winery close to the border with Alto Adige. They are “negotiant” of grapes (thanks to long-established relationships, entire families work to sell their best grapes to the Togn family), that is Gaierhof philosophy since the establishment of the company, pretty unusual profile for an Italian winemaker’s perspective.
Gaierhof style wants to resemble the taste of Trentino: smooth, fruity and easy to drink.
Introduced by Mr. Goffredo Pasolli (President of the Trentino Oenologists and Vice President of the Trentino Wines Consortium), we have tasted:
- Siris Trento DOC, sparkling bottle-fermented dry wine (5gr/litre sugar), very fine and persistent bubbles, yellow flowers, creamy and round
- Mueller-Thurgau Trentino DOC 2021, (Muller is the name of the researcher who created the hybrid, Thurgau is a Swiss county), straw yellow, semi-aromatic (one parent is Riesling and the other is a small indigenous Swiss variety), intense, citrus and sage, balanced
- Gewurztraminer Trentino DOC 2021, Traminer Aromatico in Italian or Gewurztraminer in German the origin of this variety has been long debated between Alsace and Trentino and Austria, very fresh but aromaticity is predominant, long maceration is needed to extract aromatic flavours, with that also slight tannins come, slight residual sugar is kept to round 13.8% alcohol, less than 1% of refrigerated must is added to enhance freshness and roundness
- Teroldego Rotaliano DOC 2019, 1-year large barrel ageing, fruity, ripe red fruit, raspberry, fine tannin with slightly bitter aftertaste (Teroldego grape has more anthocyanins and fewer polyphenols, thus intense colour and fine tannins)
- Teroldego Rotaliano DOC Riserva 2016, beautiful very intense ruby red colour, red fruit, blackberries, spicy, chocolate notes, full body and long persistency
- Moscato Giallo Trentino DOC, sweet wine, Muscat is an aromatic variety, yellow flowers, sweet citrus peel, but lots of freshness makes it smooth and not cloying (the grapes are dried on the vine, 16% alcohol, this wine is made according to old German style, keeping some must in the cold room then adding to the finished sweet wine, it lessen the alcohol and the sweetness making it more drinkable)