I’ve also tasted the three vintages of this wine leading up to this release from 2019, and all were excellent. Kaltern is a co-op, but co-ops are hardly all of one piece, and this is an excellent one. Medium-bodied and full of flavor, this is nevertheless still subtle and extremely well integrated, and in these respects, this is a classic rendition of the category. The fact that this wine is so consistently good is surely explained in part by the fact that there’s an entry-level wine one click down from this one, without the proprietary name of “Vial,” so the winemaking team can reserve the best juice for this bottling. With that noted, however, the entry-level wine from the 2020 vintage was also very good when I tasted it several months ago, so try that when you can.
Cantina Kaltern, Alto Adige (Italy) Pinot Bianco 2019
By Michael Franz
