Abbazia di Novacella Kerner

This stunning white wine comes from arguably one of the oldest consistently operating wineries in the world, certainly one of the oldest in Italy (there’s 850 years of winemaking under their belts here). The winery, attached to a still-operating abbey, was founded in 1142 by the Augustinian Order of Canons Regular. You can see a lovey little snapshot of the abbey on the label. Don’t overlook the snow-capped Alpine peak in the background; that’s a perfect depiction of the steep-sloped, ancient glacier-carved Isarco River valley, where the abbey’s white grapes are grown. Typically, white wines from this area are aromatic, bright and bold, and this Kerner (that’s the grape variety) rings all the bells.

An interesting little grape, Kerner is a cross between Riesling and Schiava (both varieties you can also find in this part of Italy, which borders Austria. The cool, high altitude, steeply sloped, yet sun drenched vineyards are prefectly perfectly represented by the Kerner grape, which somehow manages to encapsulate ripe green apple, zesty critrus and fleshy stone fruit characters right alongside a rejuvinating freshness and cleansing minerality. 

One of only a very few Kerners sold in NZ, we couldn’t possibly have asked for a better example to show you.