2018 Abbazia di Novacella Kloster Neustift Iscaro Sylvaner Alto Adige 750 ml

In an ancient abbey in the rugged Italian Alps, an order of monks tending 900-year-old vineyards make one of Italy's most inspired and sublime white wines. Nothing else in Alto Adige comes close to the power, grace, and utter drinkability of the 2018 Abbazia di Novacella Sylvaner. We think it's the best white coming out of the region, period, and we're offering it to our members at a mere $25 per bottle.

We discovered this radiant gem one night in Bolzano, at the Wirsthaus Vöegle, a traditional tavern that half a dozen locals had recommended to us as the spot for regional fare. Beef goulash with Tyrolean bacon dumplings. Roast saddle of pig with braised Savoy cabbage. The straight-backed, velvet-lined chairs make it the sort of place that could feel overly stiff if not for the warm and generous service and killer food. And of course the outstanding wine list. 

The wine steward had an infectious laugh and a nearly encyclopedic knowledge of Trentino wines. We chatted a while before she clapped her hands and said she had just the one for us. A wine that was not even on the list, but that she knew we'd love. Call it kismet.

Out came a bottle of the 2018 Novacella Sylvaner. We haven't stopped thinking about it since. 

On the nose, it offers orange blossom and lemon sorbet, petrichor and chamomile. The palate yields a juicy but clean and super crisp fruit profile—ripe quince, tart peach, yuzu, and Kaffir lime—tinged with a graphite-like mineral quality and a dusky note of fragrant mountain herbs. The finish builds into a full, almost chewable intensity. It's a supremely drinkable wine.

Fans of racy Pinot Gris or aromatic Pinot Blanc will not be able to put this wine down. It's almost dangerously thirst-quenching. And it has the complex fruit-floral-earth tension and focus that makes it a best-in-class cool-climate white from a region that sits just off the beaten path. 

Abbazia di Novacella, founded in 1142, is one of the oldest wineries in the world. It's also one of the northern-most wineries in Italy. (You're practically in Austria by the time you reach its gates). Most of the locals speak German inflected with an Italian lilt. The wines take their cues from this setting. A pristine confluence of rugged nature and emergent culture. Something northern and austere softened by a southern-facing charm. 

Sylvaner originates in Austria and excels just over the border in Alto Adige. The region’s high altitudes and steep slopes collude with this “easily underestimated” grape’s natural potential for what Jancis Robinson calls a “nervy combination” of the variety. 

Grapes grown in this mountainous setting require optimal hillside exposures to thrive. Keeping the vines just this side of viable yields grapes that benefit from a perfect balance of long days and cold nights, dry air, and rocky soils. It's worked for Abbazia di Novacella in the Valle Iscaro for nearly a millennium. We're just glad we found them when we did.