The Cellar: Elena Walch’s ‘Beyond the Clouds’

Friday, December 19, 2014
Steffen Rasch, GoLocalWorcester Wine Writer

In this installment of our ongoing series ‘The Making of a World Class Wine’ I am highlighting Elena Walch’s iconic Chardonnay-based white blend ‘Beyond the Clouds." More specifically, I will be featuring the 2011 vintage of this critically acclaimed wine; a wine that continues to impress wine critics across the world vintage after vintage.

Elena Walch

After having married into one of northern Italy’s most prestigious wine families in 1985, Winemaker Elena Walch soon took over operations of the Estate located in the northernmost Alto Adige wine growing region. One of the things Elena stated focusing on when she took over the Estate was to transform the vineyards by drastically lowering yields, using high quality clones and implementing higher density plantings. 

Over the years Elena Walch has become one of the leading wineries in the region producing more than a dozen different wines from local varieties Lagrain and Schiava, as well as the international varieties including Riesling, Chardonnay, Merlot and most noticeably Gewürztraminer with which she makes some absolutely amazing wines. Elena’s work with Gewürztraminer is kind of legendary. It recently resulted in leading Italian food and wine magazine Gambero Rosso nicknaming her ‘the Queen of Gewürztraminer’. Today, the 136 acre Estate remains family-owned and operated, led by Elena Walch with her two daughters Julia and Karoline by her side. 

The Wine

‘Beyond the Clouds’ is a proprietary blend of predominantly Chardonnay and ‘a selection of the Estate’s finest white grapes’. The grapes are picked once the star of the wine, the Chardonnay, reaches optimum maturity. All varieties are then crushed, pressed and fermented together in new French oak barrels. After fermentation the wine is left to age in the same oak barrels for up to a year with regular lees stirring. This is done to increase richness and complexity. The finished wine is then bottle aged for an additional 6 months before release.  

While the exact composition of the 2011 vintage is a house secret, I would guess that there is at least a splash of Gewürztraminer in it. The nose is brimming with exotic fruits and very aromatic flowers – a characteristic I often associate with Gewürztraminer. On the palate the tropical fruit notes are repeated, alongside nerving citrus and hints of toasty oak. There is an amazing density of flavor and length to this wine – a trademark of really well-made juice. You can literally still taste the wines 3 minutes after you’ve swallowed and the flavors continue to evolve as you are savoring it.

This is an outstanding bottle of wine; a wine that has the structure to age for up to a decade. At around $65 per bottle this is an ideal holiday gift to any serious wine lover, especially one who appreciates dry, aromatic and full bodied white wines. 

Cheers,

Steffen Rasch is a Certified Sommelier and Specialist of Wine. Feel free to email him at srasch@ProvidenceWineAcademy.com with any wine-related question or learn about wine in person by signing up for one of his tastings through the Providence Wine Academy.

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