It has been over a year since we have featured the wines of Elena Walch at Panzano. Since the wines have been in short supply over the past months, it has been difficult to count on having enough of them on hand for a tasting. But it looks like the dust from the supply issue has settled and now it’s time for the encore.
The wines of Elena Walch offer beautifully-structured wines with great balance and depth. If you are a fan of Loire Valley or consider yourself a wine snob of sorts, the offerings from Elena Walch promise to be a new favorite discovery. We feel the current releases of the Pinot Bianco and the Gewurztraminer are a stronger vintage and are better layered with more intense flavors and aromatics than the prior bottlings. Elena Walch’s wines are adept at pairing with almost any seafood dish or any of the in-season veggies now available at your farmer’s market.
The Elena Walch Winery is perfectly situated in the heart of the Alto Adige winegrowing country. The climate at this estate is exceptionally mild which makes for ideal growing conditions. The limestone soils on this land are rather poor, but this actually stimulates the growth and maturation of the vine. Although the climate and growing conditions are ideal for cultivating vineyards, it takes a true artisan to craft wines of this character. Recently the wines of Elena Walch have scooped some of Italy’s highest awards including the much coveted “Three Glasses” from Italy’s most influential wine guide, Gambero Rosso, for three years in a row.
On the table both Friday and Saturday this week will be the 2007 Elena Walch Pinot Bianco ($20) a concentrated, rich and almost juicy wine with excellent minerality and a long finish of white flesh fruits; the 2008 Elena Walch Gewurztraminer ($22) a wine with enormous appeal, multi-layered and rich in aromatic nuances; and a wine from Elena’s husband the 2007 Wilhelm Walch Prendo Pinot Noir ($17) a very good dark fruit-forward wine with nice light tannins and acidity. We strongly encourage making time for this tasting, and we look forward to seeing you there!
Cheers!
Fred Mullins
