Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Wines of the Giro Stage 16: Nusserhof Blaterle

http://www.gazzetta.it/Speciali/Giroditalia/2012/it/tappa.shtml?t=16&lang=en

Limone sul Gardo to Falzes/Pfalzen
Medium Mountain
Trentino-Alto Adige
From the Cycling Weekly:
With yesterday's second and final rest day done and dusted, it's back down to business with some more climbing. 
It's uphill all the way with a couple of small lumps to interrupt the cadence. Teams who have thus far not won anything in the 2012 race will be eager to send riders up the road to form an escape group and get some badly needed TV airtime.
If today's winner doesn't come from an escape group, we'll eat our laptop.


Cue the break: De Marchi, Frank, Izagirre, Mazzanti, Bak, Maes,, Herrada Lopez, Clement, Brändle and Baoro. With 77 km remaining they were up to 7 minutes and the bunch seemed not very interested in chasing. But as we have seen before, this can all change very quickly.  Eurosport though, described today as "like another rest day. A lot of riders happy to take the downtime and ride along at a comfortable pace." Perhaps thinking of the hard days ahead?
The break only went out further from there, with over 10 minutes with 55 km remaining. In the bunch, no one appeared particularly concerned, as Herrada is best-placed on GC 32:26 back. Otherwise put, not a threat to any of the potential race winners.It is on days like this I feel for the announcers as there is very little action and a lot of air to fill. 
To make it clear, from twitter:
nyvelocity 7:47am via TweetDeck
Everybody in the Giro does realize there IS a finish today, right?






Stage:Jon Izagirre
Maglia Rosa: Joaquim Rodrigiez
GC:  unchanged

Wine: Nusserhof Blaterle
From the importer
The Nusserhof estate, consisting of 2.4 hectares of organic vineyards, lies directly beside the Isarco River facing south, practically in the center of the city of Bolzano. The warm climate and the deep alluvial soils, rich in eroded porphyry,  make this the perfect place to ripen grapes in northern Italy. Elda & Heinrich Nusser are the latest generation of their family to work this land where the records date back to at least 1788. The Nusserhof gets its name from the hazelnut trees that once lined the house on the river side.

Blatterle (the grape name has two t's) is an old white varietal, indigenous to the area, which nearly became extinct. The grapes are golden and oval shaped – the name itself means "little leaf" in German. At one time the grape was used to produce either sweet must (to be served with roast chestnuts), or a light white wine for quaffing. The Mayrs produce a more serious wine by reducing yields, soft pressing and temperature controlled fermentations. It's a wine that is very mouthfilling and easy. There is also a briny salinity to it. 

I say: I'm always pleased when the Giro comes to Alto Adige. I'm sure that bad wines from the region exist, but I have had very few. Pale. Flowers, herbs and apple, with the brine mentioned above. Their " a light white wine for quaffing" is very true.




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