The hills are alive!  This is what Heidi would drink!  2020 Weingut Kofererhof Sylvaner, Eisaktaler-Valle Isarco, Sudtirol-Alto Adige If a wine could perfectly express its origins, the Kofererhof’s Sylvaner might be one of the most expressive wines in the world!  Those who have travelled up here; the northern part of Italy’s Adige Valley, deep in the mountains just a few kilometers south of the Brenner Pass to Austria, know of what I speak.  This land, cleansed by the clean air and cooling breezes of the Alps, is some of the most stunning in Europe.  The fastidious German speaking people who live here claim allegiance to neither Italy nor Austria.  They are from the Sudtirol, danke, and please don’t you forget it!  Gunther and Gaby Kerschbaumer are one such hearty couple.  They live and work at the top of the Eisacktal, on a windy hilltop perched 700 meters above the Abbazia di Novacella, the area’s most visible landmark and most famous cellar.  From their breathtakingly beautiful, organically farmed alpine vineyards, Gunther and Gaby carve out their living running the small but lively Kofererhof Gasthaus and making, in their tiny cellar, some of the best white wines in all of Italy.  Theirs are scintillating wines that crackle with fresh acidity and complex flavors and are even better when they’ve had the chance to develop in the cellar a year or two.  The 2020 Sylvaner combines lots and lots of radiant sunshine with the icy alpine nights for which this region is legion, creating a beautifully balanced wine that’s round on the palate but ultra-zingy and fresh on the back end. There’s a ton of character here!  Extremely aromatic, it is evocative of the verdant hills of the Tyrol, just trapped in a bottle of wine!  White roses, white peaches, salty mineral and slate-y petrichor are only a few of the aromas that lead into a palate that is both satisfyingly rich- almost Alsatian in nature- while ultra-fresh and lively too.  A natural with fresh or salt water fish (grilled steelhead?), it has the palate presence to assert itself alongside the much richer dishes of the region as well