Chardonnay Hofstätter 2023

This wine is the valued result of the careful and exclusive selection of Chardonnay variety grapes which come from hillside vineyards with westerly and easterly exposure at Termeno and Cortaccia. The grapes are lightly crushed and separated from the residue by natural precipitation, after which the must is left to ferment under a controlled temperature of 20 degrees centigrade. The wine is then matured for five months in steel barrels at a constant cellar temperature of 15 degrees centigrade. As one might expect from a white wine that is made according to tradition in steel barrels rather than in woo, it is pleasant, fresh and fragrant. It is aimed at those who like their white wines to be aromatic, but not excessively so. This Chardonnay has a nice strong straw-yellow colour, with a subtle greenish hue, and a typically fruity note of golden apples. It has a good level of acidity, together with a solid body, and a strong, long-lasting taste. This is a wine with the right credentials to evolve of the course of time, and is at its best for at least two years after the date of the harvest. Contains sulphites. Produced by WEINGUT J. HOFSTÄTTER - Rathausplatz, 7 - 39040, Tramin (BZ) - Alto Adige - Italy.

The producer

For a century, the name Hofstatter has been associated by connoisseurs with a producer of excellent wines in Alto Adige. It was Josef Hofstatter who laid the foundations on which the company has been built. He was actually a blacksmith, but he also produced home-made wine for his wife, Maria. Producing home-made wine was, in fact, quite common at the time. His love of wine came from these origins. It was not long before he abandoned his profession to dedicate himself with passion, talent and common sense to wine-making. And so, before long Josef Hofstatter wines became famous in Italy and abroad with a client base that gets larger year by year. After the death of Josef in 1942, the company passed on to his descendant Konrad Oberhofer and his wife, Luise. Konrad Oberhofer was perfectly aware of the potential of the family's vines. He was one of the first in Alto Adige to begin harvesting and making-wine separately, vine by vine, and to put these wines on the market, not as an anonymous product, but as wine with different denominations (the "Crus"). In 1959 Konrad's daughter, Sieglinde, married the wine-maker Paolo Foradori, whose family had been successfully dedicated to wine-making at Mazon near Egna for decades. With this marriage the best vineyards in Bassa Atesina were united. Termeno and Mazon therefore became the foundations on which, today more than ever, the company and the family stand. Management of the vineyards and the cellars has now been passed on to the fourth generation, Martin Foradori, whose young man's impulses and desire for innovation draw on nearly a century of experience.

Best with

This wine goes well with light antipasta, and with fish.

How to serve it

The wine should be served at 12 - 13 degrees centigrade in clear, transparent crystal goblets.

How to keep

This isn't a wine that should be aged for a long time and is best drunk within four to five years of purchase at the latest. The bottles should be laid horizontally in a cool, dark, humid wine-cellar.