Nals Margreid Sirmian Pinot Bianco Alto Adige DOC – 2023

This is a wonderful example of the Pinot Bianco grape from the Alto Adige region.

It has gently fruity, pink grapefruit and floral aromas, then on the palate a delicious mix of exotic fruit and salty minerality. It is dry, rich and deep in flavour, but beautifully balanced by a fine, racy Alpine acidity. It finishes long, leaving a wide array of flavours in the mouth. Definitely a wine you want to drink more of!  

This wine would pair well with white asparagus, spaghetti with sardines or a white fish stew.

97/100pts Decanter Magazine; 95pts James Suckling

3,300 cases were produced. Drink now – 2032.

Nals Margreid is an excellent quality cooperative with its headquarters based in the village of Nals in the Adige Valley, about halfway between Bolzano to the east and Merano to the west. It is fairly large, with 138 members owning 160 hectares of vineyards spread between Nals and the village of Margreid in the far south of the region. It has a wide range of vineyards with different terroirs and microclimates under its supervision, and there is not a single wine in its entire range which does not deliver or over-deliver in quality at its respective price point. It gained worldwide recognition in 2013 when its Sirmian Pinot Bianco was awarded “Best Italian White Wine” by the Gambero Rosso, which is THE reference guide to Italian wines. Having tasted the Sirmian 2022 vintage in this wine packet, I fully understand why this wine was so highly awarded!

Sirmian Pinot Bianco comes from ten hectares of vines grown at higher altitudes of 500-700m on cool, east-facing slopes up above the winery in Nals. The soils here are a mix of limestone, slate and marble on top of porphyry, the typical Alto Adige volcanic bedrock. The climate here is much more typically Alpine, with mild summers and long, cool Autumns. These grapes are usually the last to be picked of all Nals Margreid’s vineyards, usually in mid October.

Each vineyard’s grapes are hand-picked, wild-fermented in large old oak casks, then matured on their lees for a further eight months before blending and bottling.