2016 Beyond the Clouds

This is always a special wine that you can immediately recognize in a blind tasting. The 2016 Alto Adige Beyond The Clouds is Chardonnay with other semi-aromatic varieties blended within. This vintage is indeed more subdued and less aromatic compared to past editions, in my opinion. This wine gives greater emphasis to the yellow fruit found in abundance at its core and the delicate mineral notes that add overall sharpness and focus to the bouquet. The wine fans out evenly over the palate with a creamy, mid-weight texture that should hold steady for the next five to ten years. All the fruit comes from various single-vineyard sites and is harvested on the same day. It continues to fermentation as the finished cuvée. After fermentation, it undergoes three months of weekly bâtonnage and is later aged in French oak for ten months. Some 14,000 bottles were produced.