#62 Kerner – 438 grapes left

Two wines, one story. Two countries, one grape. Pretty interesting comparison and my first 2 wine line item for the list.

WINE DETAILS:

Grape: Kerner
Alcohol: 13.5%
Wine: Manni Nössing
Vintage: 2018
Winery: Manni Nössing
Location: Sudtirol Eisacktaler DOC, Alto Adige, Italy
Date: 1/30/21

Grape: Kerner
Alcohol: 13.5%
Wine: Localism
Vintrage: 2019
Winery: Anon Wines
Location: Lodi, California, US
Date: 2/12/21
Distributor: Hedonist

Curious Synonyms: Herold Triumpf, Herold Weiss, Weinsberg S 25-30

Nerd Alert: Aromatic white grape variety. It was bred in 1929 by August Herold by crossing Trollinger (a red variety also known as Schiava grossa) and Riesling. In 2006 Kerner was the 8th most planted variety in Germany. It’s named in honour of a german poet and physician, Justinus Kerner, whose works included songs and poetry on wine. The grape is normally growned in Austria, Switzerland, Japan, Italy, Michigan and California. The Mokelumne Glen Vineyard in Lodi, located in close proximity to the cool river, is the only source of the rare Kerner grape in California.

Personal Note: Well this is a first. I’ve never done a two wine presentation for a grape. Closest I’ve been was #35 Furmint, but didn’t get into the details of both wines. You see, four weeks ago I didn’t even know Kerner existed, much less knew it was available in Puerto Rico. About two weeks ago I visited my old man and he served me a wine blindly and just told me “It ain’t a Riesling”. I went through the grid, and I just couldn’t place it anywhere on memory. I kept going back to german and austrian wines because of the structure and elegance but I was clueless. The worse part…it did had a slight Riesling feel. When he showed me the grape I started laughing. Alto Adige… that beautiful area just hits me in the right spot every time and confuses the grape must out of me easily. Also…I just casually had tried a new grape without even planning it.

Now the laughter also has another story from a few days earlier. You see, when I tried that wine, I had already found out the grape was available in Puerto Rico, but not that wine, and not from that distributor. That was a super bonus. The one I found was from Lodi, California, an area greatly overlooked in the west with amazing quality, character and well crafted wines. And so, this weekend I opened that wine, and I was most impressed by its profile too. Something about this grape, and most definitely, these producers that took this grape to such elegant quality.

There were some differences, but for the most part this grape behaves amicably to different terroir.
And so I went from ignorance, to availability, to a grape vertical within a few weeks margin. I love where I live sometimes.

Thoughts?

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