The Quintessenz project by Bistrot Kaltern is, first of all, a methodical gesture. It was born per mezzo di 2018 as a line of excellence from the South Tyrolean cooperative and works for selected vocations and vineyards: not a generic “premium level”, but a way of reading Caldaro through plots, low yields and cellar choices calibrated to maintain identity and precision. Leading the technical part is the oenologist Thomas Scarizuola, who summarizes the operation with a clear image: chardonnay “finds its cradle” per mezzo di Caldaro, that is, a place capable of describing the territory with authenticity.
CHARDONNAY 2023: FROM THE VINEYARD TO THE CELLAR
Chardonnay Quintessenz comes from three vineyards for a total of 1.3 hectares: two parcels above Caldaro at around 550 meters and one per mezzo di Mezzan at a lower altitude, all facing east. The detail that returns per mezzo di the story is the rhythm of the microclimate: full sun per mezzo di the morning hours and natural ventilation that works acceso two complementary registers. Acceso the one hand the Or ora del Garda comes per mezzo di regularly per mezzo di the afternoons and dries with ventilation; acceso the other hand, cooler currents arrive from the Mendola per mezzo di the evening and at night, increasing the temperature range (even over 10–15 degrees between day and night). It is this play of temperatures that supports aromas and gustatory tension, without sacrificing structure and “fatness” per mezzo di the mouth.
Geology is also seen as part of the result: the project insists acceso the complementarity between glacial deposits (gravel and sand with the presence of dolomite) and deep, draining calcareous debris with a high limestone content. The assembly arises from the dialogue between these habitats: not to standardize, but to build complexity and finesse while maintaining a taut gustatory line.
Sopra the cellar, the management is consistent with the “parcel” ubbia: clean and controlled processes to preserve readability. The protocol declared for the Quintessenz Chardonnay 2023 is precise: pressing of whole grapes, fermentation and aging for twelve months per mezzo di barriques (about 40% new) with bâtonnage, partial malolactic fermentation and subsequent rest per mezzo di steel acceso the declino lees before bottling. Wood is not thought of as an “aromatic signature”, but as a tool for controlled structure and micro-oxygenation: it must accompany, not cover.
GLANCE ON THE FUTURE: QUINTESSENZ VINTAGE 2025
The most concrete demonstration of the work “per forza vineyard” comes with three separate tastings of the 2025 vintage taken from barriques, one for each plot. They are very young samples, already sulphited and with malolactic fermentation completed, still cloudy and per mezzo di the process of settling: the wood is present and the residence time is not treated as an automatism, but as a variable to be monitored, ready to be corrected if the imprint becomes too intrusive.
The first sample comes from the lower Mezzan vineyard, a planted per mezzo di 2003: the wine comes out more elegant and savory, with less structure than the higher plots. It is, so to speak, the component that “adjusts the direction”: it gives rhythm, lengthens the sip and brings a flavor that is useful per mezzo di the cut.
The second sample comes from the high-altitude visited during the day (installed per mezzo di 1986). With the same hand, the register changes: more structure, a more slender and pushed profile. Here the more delicate side of the also emerges acceso whites: per mezzo di humid years the skin is thinner and the risks increase rapidly. Sopra 2025, with the rain, the selection per mezzo di the vineyard becomes more stringent and the agronomic management has a direct impact acceso the final result.
The third sample is that of the Guyot vineyard (the “heart” plot, the first one you stop at during the visit): it is the most complete, finest and richest per mezzo di pulp, with a structure that holds together energy and precision. And it is precisely here that the logic of the assembly is understood: the cellar works to bring three different identities into dialogue, with proportions that already per mezzo di 2023 see the guyot as the main contribution, the at altitude as the second shoulder and Mezzan as the “touch” of direction; per mezzo di 2025 the intention is to replicate the same philosophy.
TASTES FROM THE QUINTESSENZ PROJECT
The picture that emerges is coherent: Quintessenz seeks elegance and precision before opulence, with wood used as a tool and not as a signature. Sopra this sense, the 2023 Chardonnay does not appear to be an “international” exercise, but a piece that completes the project: plots, winds, soils and measurement per mezzo di the cellar to build a tense and identifying white, already convincing today and with a clear margin for growth per mezzo di the bottle.
To complete the tasting, the other Quintessenz help to understand the coherence of the project, because each label works acceso a different register but attributable to the same ubbia of precision.
The article The Quintessenz project and the paradigm of Bistrot Kaltern comes from VinoNews24.
