Karen MacNeil delivers the keynote address at the 2015 Wine Bloggers Conference.

I met Karen MacNeil at the 2015 Wine Bloggers Conference in Corning, New York last month. Prior to the conference, I wrote a post of an online interview with Karen, America’s leading wine author. We were invited to participate in a wine tasting on Twitter led by Karen MacNeil.

The Twitter tasting is sponsored by Alto Adige Wines and takes place on Thursday, September 24th at 8:00 pm Eastern Time. We received eight samples of the wines from wineries in Italy’s Alto Adige region. Kathy and I have not visited this area of Italy, although we were close. We did visit wineries in Veneto and Friuli Venezia Giulia a few years ago. Further north of the Veneto region is the Trentino Alto Adige region.

Research revealed that the main red grape planted in this region is Schiava followed by other red grapes including Lagrein and Pinot Noir. White varietal grapes account for the 60% of varieties planted. The most common white varieties are: Pinot Grigio, Gewürztraminer, Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc and Sauvignon. The Alto Adige has about 5,300 hectares (13,100 acres) of vineyards planted making it one of Italy’s smallest wine growing regions. The vast majority of these vineyards are classified as DOC. Only about a third of the wine produced in this region is exported. The Twitter tasting will be the first wines from Alto Adige that Kathy and I will taste.

The wines for the tasting are:

2014 Castel Sallegg Pulvernai Pinot Grigio
2013 Alois Lageder Porer Pinot Grigio
2012 Cantina Terlano Vorberg Pinot Bianco
2013 Colterenzio Prail Sauvignon
2014 Cantina Andriano Gewürztraminer
2014 Kaltern Caldaro Pfarrhof Kalterersee Auslese
2013 Erste + Neue Mezzan Pinot Nero
2010 Abbazia di Novacella Praepositus Lagrein

If you never saw or participated in a Twitter tasting check out the hashtag #SipWithKaren on Thursday, September 24th at 8:00 pm Eastern Time. You will get the idea of how Twitter tastings are done and see the comments by tasters.

We are looking forward to the tasting. At the same time we will keep a watchful eye on the Redskins/Giants game. In addition to the tasting the Alto Adige wines, our mood may be celebratory or consolatory.

Cheers,
Terry