2019 Abbazia di Novacella Stiftskellerei Neustift Kerner Valle Isarco Alto Adige Italy 750 ml

Our favorite offbeat discovery this year came at us from out of the blue—a super crisp and achingly floral white wine from Abbazia di Novacella, offering remarkable substance from top to bottom. Made from a variety known as Kerner, it's one of the most versatile food wines you'll find anywhere. 

Despite its modest pricing—in that $20 sweet spot—the tension that defines this wine absolutely rings in the glass, giving critics plenty to celebrate. James Suckling said its frame of "energetic acidity" was "really well done" and scored it 92 points. Wine Enthusiast crowed about the previous vintage (they haven't scored the 2019 yet), naming it an Editors’ Choice with another 92-point score. 

In the Isarco Valley, where the Abbazia has been making wine continuously for nearly 900 years, the locals speak an Italian-inflected German. The land undulates over the basin, below the abbey, only to erupt skyward on dry-stacked stone terraces toward snow-capped, Alpine peaks. And the wines, typified by the Abbazia's Kerner (itself a cross between Italian and German grapes), stand balanced between two cultures, two styles—northern austerity and southern indulgence. It's a land of transitions, a place that exudes history's most creative combinations.

Kerner is a specialty of the region, the offspring of Riesling, a white variety known for its racy acidity, and an aromatic red variety, thought to be from the surrounding Alto Adige region, called Schiava Grosso. The result yields the best of both worlds: a snappy white with ample body and a heady bouquet.

We had stumbled into the outrageous beauty of Abbazia di Novacella on a trip to Tyrol last year. We fell so deeply in love with their Sylvaner on that trip that we didn't have a chance to explore the full gamut of the Abbazia's bottlings. So it was an incredibly happy accident earlier this year when a bottle of the Kerner showed up at one of our (socially distanced) backyard get-togethers. 

Everyone brought a few bottles, and the festivities went late, but there was so much wine flowing that the Kerner never got popped. It's fitting, really, to think of this little wine sitting all alone among the empties, overlooked even among friends. Luckily, as we were cleaning up the next day, we snatched it from the jaws of obscurity. Then we chilled it down and cracked it open just as fast as we could.

Anything coming out of the Abbazia, we knew, would take us for a pleasant ride. We weren't disappointed. Right out of the gate the wine transported us to those Alpine meadows, full of mountain herbs and spring wildflowers. Hints of jasmine laced through to the palate, connecting to the juicy stone fruits, tart and sweet and mouthwatering, all at the same time. It's very focused and delightfully grippy through the finish. And the final impression is a sort of coda, wrapping back around the aromatic intensity of the wine's opening, only further lifted with touches of smoke and spice.

Evidence suggests people have been making wine in this valley for at least 2,500 years. The Abbazia is still a spring chick by those lights, but by all other standards they hold an extremely rare continuity of knowledge, stretching deep into the middle ages, having cultivated a sense of place through vinification for the better part of a millennium. That they do Kerner like no one else comes to us as no surprise. But the wine itself is nothing short of a wonder.