Eichenstein Sauvignon Blanc Knott South Tyrol 2024

Earlier this year, our buying team made their first-ever trip to Alto Adige, and by all accounts, none of them were fully prepared for what they walked into. More German spoken around town than Italian. Views in every direction that stopped the conversation cold. And at the center of it all, a 4-star hotel called Oberwirt that has been welcoming guests since 1496. They were a long way from home.

From there, they drove up steep, single-lane mountain roads to reach Weingut Eichenstein's vineyard, nearly above the clouds. Josef "Sepp" Waldner, the 11th-generation patriarch of a family farming this land for over 350 years, walked them through the vines himself alongside day-to-day winemaker Martin Pollinger. The setting was unlike anything the team had seen on a buying trip before. Just four hectares of south-west-facing vines floating between 550 and 600 meters above the Adige Valley, with porphyry quartzite and granite underfoot and breathtaking mountains on every side. One of a kind does not begin to cover it.

The Knott bottling comes from a single site just above Merano, where rocky terrain and a cool alpine microclimate strip away any tropical softness you might expect from Sauvignon Blanc and replace it with something far more compelling: stony tension, crunchy minerality, and a kind of lifted freshness that can only come from this specific patch of mountain. Grapefruit zest, Gala apple, elderflower, and a whisper of yellow kiwi up front, then a deep backbone of salty minerals and snappy acidity that keeps you reaching for the next sip. Endlessly crisp, and genuinely unlike anything else we carry.

If the Italian Alps are already on your list, consider this your sipping companion while you plan the trip. And if they are not on the list yet, a glass or two of this might change that. Load up while you can!

FOOD PAIRINGS: I picture this with my favorite coastal fish and chips (Fishetarian in Bodega Bay, if you’re local) – all the salty, lemony, crunchy, malted vinegary elements just crush with a SB like this.