The 2021 Alto Adige Chardonnay Sanct Valentin is a soft and luscious expression with pretty layers of fresh fruit, apricot, dried sage and sweet lemon-meringue pie. It matures in oak for 11 months, followed by a period of rest in cement. You get lots of fresh varietal character with the complexity to pair with a shellfish risotto.

Pale straw-yellow. Yellow peach and menthol on the fresh nose. Then fresh citrus, mineral and orchard fruit flavors buffered by harmonious acidity, giving the midpalate a nicely taut quality. In a high-altitude style - and a mercifully much less oaky one than past efforts, which, though highly praised (never by me) were almost caricatural in their caramelly overtones. (Feb 2020)