We just added a new wine to our list, a 2007 Goldmuskateller from the family run Thurnhof Estates in Northern Italy. We don’t have much room to store cases of wine, so rather than offering people the same old list of Syrahs, Cabernets, Chardonnays, Pinot Grigios and all the rest of the usual suspects we thought we’d make up a wine list of the strangest and most unusual wines we could find, sort of like a wine zoo for exotic animals.

.

Thurnhof Estates, home of the Thurnhof Goldmuskateller

.

Even by our standards, the Goldmuskateller is a weirdo, but a surprisingly friendly one. It’s got a strong musky smell that oozes out of the glass like a low-lying fog, making you think that a family of gigantic grapes just sat down next to you, but it’s cut with a sharp, crisp apple aroma that reminds you of biting into Autumn’s first apples. Then you take a sip of it and it’s something else entirely. This is a very hot wine, so when you taste it first you get a nice, mellow taste of honey and then you get slapped across the cheek with an astringent pine flavor, almost like you’re drinking nettles soaked in honey. It’s a pretty neat trick: you’re lured in by the smell of apples and musk, you get a taste of honey, and then your tongue gets lashed for being so cheeky. It sounds violent, but to be honest it’s really enjoyable. Rather than a mellow wine lulling you into an alcoholic stupor, the Goldmuskateller is a hot-blooded wine that kicks you awake.

.

Goldmuskateller grapes.

.

Muscat grapes were the first grapes ever grown for wine (at least that’s what most wine historians say) and there are over 200 varieties, which are made into pretty much every kind of wine imaginable, from sweet wines, to dry wines, to sparkling wines. The Italian version of the muscat grape, which are used to produce this Goldmuskateller, are called moscato, which is just a fancy Italian way of saying “muscat.” Moscato giallo, a variety of moscato (or muscat) grape known for its golden color, is what you use to make Goldmuskateller (the grapes are also sometimes known as Goldmuskateller grapes). Muscat grapes attract bees by the thousands, leading some ancient Romans to call it uva apiana, or “grape of the bees,” and we’d like to think that that’s what accounts for the taste of honey you get from this Goldmuskateller.

.

“It warms the blood, adds luster to the eyes,

And wine and love have ever been allies.”  – Ovid

.

The Thurnhof vineyard is about as far north in Italy as you can get, in the Alto Adige region, near the city of Bolzano. The Italians around here often speak German (confusing!) and they mostly tend small, co-operate vineyards, concentrating on low yield vines that deliver grapes with intense fruit. In fact, they’re so low-yield that there are only a few thousand bottles of Thurnhoff Goldmuskateller made each year, so drink it now before it’s all gone. Bolzano gets blazingly hot in the summer and the region is full of apple orchards, which is why this Goldmuskateller has a hint of apples to it. As for the slap of pine needles at the end, we’re not sure where that comes from. Bolzano was rated as the city with the second highest quality of life in Italy, and so maybe it’s just an uppity wine? Or maybe it’s the fact that it wants to remind you that even though it’s made of antique grapes, it’s a wine that’s still very much alive and kicking.

.

“When men drink, then they are rich and successful and win lawsuits and are happy and help their friends. Quickly, bring me a beaker of wine, so that I may wet my mind and say something clever.” – Aristophanes

.

.

(Thurnhof Estate’s official website)