The Cantina Tramin’s Gewürztraminer Epokale 2009 wins the score of 100/100 in the evaluation of Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate, the magazine of the famous wine critic.
In 40 years the prestigious bimonthly publication as reviewed and rated 35,000 wines registered and tasted, and the maximum score has been assigned to only 13 of them, and never before to an Italian white wine.
Cantina Tramin, a nearly 120-year-old cooperative that contracts grapes from about 150 families with combined vineyards totaling more than 600 acres around Termeno (BZ), wrote on its website: “We are honored by the recognition and proud of having brought it to Alto Adige for the first time ever. The first white wine awarded with maximum points in Italy. Congratulations to our winemaker, Willi Stürz, and to all who have worked on this project with consistency and dedication!” Indeed, much of this success is due to Stürz’s determination. The winemaker and technical director of the winery is the developer of the Epokale project and the one that had the vision to explore new perspectives for the Gewürztraminer aging it in an abandoned silver mine.
With the 2009 vintage, the co-op made a late-harvest Gewürztraminer from two small well-exposed old vineyards. A year later, the production of 100 cases was trucked to the mine, where, at over 2000 meters above sea level, a gallery accessible by a still-functional small electric train descends 450 meters deep in the mountain. Stürz figured that the mine’s lower atmospheric pressure and constant temperature would allow for slow aging capable of developing deep scents in the wine. This spring, when the snow blocking the access to the mine melted, Cantina Tramin pulled out the “perfect” Italian white wine.
Ilona Catani Scarlett