 Cantina St. Pauls
At the 2007 San Francisco International Wine Competition, the largest and most prestigious wine competition in North America, St. Pauls was selected as a "BEST OF NATION" winery. This reflects the greatest number and quality of medals won by a winery from Italy. Quite a nice recognition!
"This wonderful cooperative can be confidently confirmed as one of the brightest stars in Alto Adige viticulture and winemaking." - Gambero Rosso Guide to Italian Wines, 2005 Edition Driving north towards Bolzano along the famous Alto-Adige Wine Road, just past the well-known town of Appiano, you could easily miss the turnoff up the hill leading to the small village of San Paolo, which is a "frazione" of Appiano, otherwise known as Eppan, in German. Cantina San Paolo (St. Pauls) is a "Cantina Sociale." Like so many similar cooperatives in Italy, there is a central winemaker and agronomist who work with many small growers in the immediate area to supply grapes and produce several differing price and quality level wines. In recent years, a new winemaker and a new company philosophy have been at work remaking all the San Paolo offerings. Now even the "Classic" level of wines offer amazing character for the price level. In 2007, Cantina San Paolo celebrated it's 100th anniversary, so as you can imagine there are some wonderful old vines being cultivated by the over 200 local producers being tapped as suppliers. We first were introduced to these wines on a VinItaly US Tour, where several of them were being used as reference examples for a class on the different varietals and wine-producing regions of Italy. Those two wines, a Pinot Bianco and a Lagrein, both stood out among the various offerings in the class. When we heard they were not available in the US, we had to remedy that situation. The "Classic" wines, such as the Pinot Bianco "Berg," represent excellent value for the quality and sheer drinking pleasure. They are precise and straightforward examples of the varietals and the terroir, made in an easy-to-drink style. The "Exclusiv" line of wines, which are all single-vineyard bottlings, show more structure and sophistication and, while eminently drinkable, show a depth, complexity, and ageability that is very impressive (we recently tasted a Pinot Grigio "Exclusiv" that was nearly 40 years old, and it was quite amazing). This line includes such stars as the perennial Tre-Bicchieri finalist, the Pinot Bianco Exclusiv "Ploetzner," which is born in a vineyard at nearly 2000 feet in elevation. Also, the ever lush and minerally Pinot Grigio Exclusiv "Egg Leiten." The Gewurztraminer "St. Justina," with its perfect balance between richness and spot-on Gewurz character and lightness and drinkability outshines virtually any Gewurz from Alsace or other more famous regions. Newly introduced just last year, the "Passion" line represents the peak of Alto Adige winemaking. These completely world-class wines, made from grapes selected as the very best each year from whichever vineyards produce the best of each varietal that year, are the ultimate in elegance, ageworthiness, and complexity. It is impossible to overstate how good these wines are - you simply have to try them to believe it. Wine List
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