The pinnacle of Kurtatsch: Merlot with Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon from Brenntal, fifteen months in barrique, nine months in large casks and three and a half years in bottle. Falstaff gave this vintage 97 points.
Impenetrable dark red with a purple glow that belies its age. The nose is deep and many-sided: black cherry, cassis and plum, with tobacco, cedar and a resinous alpine note beneath. The long ageing in wood and bottle has fused everything — nothing stands out, everything holds together. On the palate the wine is grand in scale and restrained at the same time: the tannins are ripe and finely woven, the extract dense, the acidity holding it all upright. It is precisely the contrast between the Mediterranean ripeness of Brenntal and the alpine cool of the nights that gives this wine its tension. The finish is very long and spicy. Serve with aged beef, game, leg of lamb or mature mountain cheese — and give it an hour in the decanter.
Kellerei Kurtatsch is a cooperative in the South Tyrolean village of Kurtatsch, founded in 1900 by forty-two growers. Today 190 member families farm 190 hectares of vineyard between 220 and 900 metres. Erwin Carli is the cellar master.
Très is the pinnacle of Kellerei Kurtatsch and comes exclusively from Brenntal, the warmest vineyard in the village. The plots lie steeply on the south-south-east facing slope between 220 and 300 metres, on red sandy-loamy soils with clay minerals and oxides, and on gravelly dolomitic limestone.
The wide day-night temperature swing and the restricted yield of 35 hectolitres per hectare produce a concentration that allows the wine to carry its long ageing.
The grapes ferment in wooden vats. The wine then matures fifteen months in French barriques, followed by nine months in large oak casks and three and a half years in bottle. Alongside its scores, this vintage received Tre Stelle Oro from Veronelli and four VITI from Vitae.
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