The Wine Pair Podcast

WTF is Kerner?

• The Wine Pair • Season 1 • Episode 163

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Now this is an exciting wine! We didn’t have super high expectations going in - the name Kerner does not scream “adventure” - but we are telling you this is a white wine that is worth seeking out. Some call it one of the best white wines in Italy, and after tasting it, we agree, and so we are wondering why it does not get more love! It is a grape originally created in Germany as a cross between Riesling and Schiava/Trollinger to be a workhorse and handle cold weather, the Italians have made it into a rich, complex, and beautiful aromatic white wine. Confused about why this German wine is being made in Germany?!? Listen in and we’ll tell you why! Both the wines we tried in this episode are excellent, and what is fun is that they are both a little different from each other - the Abbazia wine we would call adventurous and worth seeking out, and the winemaker is no slouch, having won the Gambero Rosso Winemaker of the Year in 2009. Trust us, this is an episode you will want to listen to. Wines reviewed in this episode:  2023 Kellerei Bozen Puntscheit Kerner, 2023 Abbazia di Novacella Kerner

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Show Notes

Episode 163: WTF is Kerner? 00:00

Hello! And welcome to The Wine Pair Podcast. I’m Joe, your sommelier of reasonably priced wine, and this is my wife and my wine pairing partner in crime, Carmela. And we are The Wine Pair! 

If you are new to our podcast, here is what you can expect. If you love wine and want to find great wines at affordable prices, and you want to expand your wine horizons, and you want to have some laughs and fun while doing it - then you are in the right place! Each week we explore a different wine varietal, style, brand, or region of the winemaking world, and learn about what makes them worth knowing about. And then we taste 2-3 of those wines that are reasonably priced to let you know if they are worth your hard earned money. If that feels like your vibe, then we are super happy you are here. And, we are proud to say that Decanter Magazine calls us fun, irreverent, chatty, and entertaining.

And, I should also call out that we have won an award where we have been named one of the top 50 over 50 podcasts. So, that’s cool! And, in the company of that award is Mel Robbins, that Carmela is a huge fan of!

Carmela, we are back with one of our much beloved WTF episodes, and we love these episodes, too, because we get to learn about wines we don’t know much about, learn about history, learn about areas of the world, and all sorts of other fun stuff, and this week we are talking about a wine called Kerner. Now, before the episode today, had you ever heard of the wine Kerner? How about White Herold?

Any guesses, on hearing the name, where it is from or what kind of wine it might be?

Super, duper interesting. Because, while I have heard of Kerner, we have never tasted it and we really don’t know much about it, but I would have made the same kind of assumptions as you.  Here are some interesting notes about Kerner

  • As you would have guessed, the Kerner grape originated in Germany, and it was created in 1929 by August Herold at a plant breeding station in Lauffen in the Württemberg region of Germany. It is a cross between Riesling and Schiava Grossa, also known as Red Trollinger. 
  • The grape was eventually named after Justinus Kerner, a German poet and physician from Swabia - which is in southern Germany - and who lived appropriately enough in a town called Weinsberg, who, also appropriately enough was a writer of drinking songs. Now at first, it was called "White Herold" after August Herold who was the person who invented the grape, before being renamed Kerner. The grape variety was granted plant variety protection in 1969 - which we will talk about more a bit later.
  • The surprising part about Kerner is that it has become very successful in the Alto Adige region of Northern Italy. It was introduced to South Tyrol - which is the German name for the region of Alto Adige -  in the early 1970s and received DOC status in 1993. 
  • Beyond Germany and Alto Adige, Kerner is also cultivated in other regions, including:
    • Switzerland 
    • Japan, specifically on the island of Hokkaido
    • South Africa
    • The United States particularly in Michigan and in Lodi, California
  • In Germany, it reached peak popularity in 1992, cultivation has since declined, and we’ll talk about that more a bit later, too


So, I feel like this wine is a bit of an enigma - which means something mysterious or difficult to understand. Why would a German wine be best known for growing in Italy? Why is it declining in popularity in Germany? And what the hell does “plant variety protection” mean? 

Well, we are going to uncover these mysterious, and maybe more, in a few minutes, and we are going to taste and review two Kerner wines, both from Italy, to let you know if they are worth checking out  . . . 

But first . . . we have to do our shameless plug.

Thank you for listening to us and for supporting our show, and if you haven’t  had the chance to do so yet, now would be the perfect time to follow or subscribe to our podcast - and a huge thank you to all of you who have subscribed already! 

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And we want to make content you care about and you like, so send us a note and send us some feedback, if let us know if there are wines you want us to try or wine making areas of the world you are curious about - and we’ll take care of it! joe@thewinepairpodcast.com

  • Shout out to Bud who is really trying to help us find wines from Virginia we can do on our show. We’ll keep trying!
  • And thanks to all of you who send your nice notes and thoughts and likes and reposts - we appreciate you so much! 


And, as we do every week, we’ll tell you someone we think you should recommend The Wine Pair Podcast to - because the best way for us to grow listeners is when you tell your family and friends about us. This week, we want you to recommend us to anyone who is unaware of the connections between Northern Italy, Austria, and Germany, because they may want to know. And, also, Riesling fans may be interested as well. 

RESEARCH ARTICLES AND LINKS FOR THIS EPISODE



Topic: WTF is Kerner, and why is it most well known today in Italy? 09:55

So, Carmela, let’s find out a bit more about what the fuck Kerner is all about, and most importantly, why it is most well known today in Italy, shall we?

For a bit of history, it is important to note this fact - the Alto Adige area in northern Italy was originally part of Austria-Hungary until 1915 when it was annexed to Italy in the secret Treaty of London. They were given this region because they agreed to declare war against what were called the Central Powers during WWI - which Severance reminds us was named The Great War at that time. Up until that time, Italy had tried to stay neutral in the war. So, that is the first mystery solved - the annexation of the area during the secret treaty.

Alto Adige is also known as Sudtirol in Italian which means South Tyrol. North Tyrol is still part of Austria, and is where the city of Innsbruck is located. So, the ties between Austria and Germany and Italy are still pretty tight in this area. In fact, Alto Adige is still an autonomous area of Italy where 30% of the people still speak German.

The next mystery was how Kerner got to Alto Adige, and why it took until 1970 for it to be grown there. Well, remember that Kerner was created in 1929 in Germany and it was a protected species, so it was not allowed to be grown outside of Germany until 1969 when it was granted plant variety protection - remember, we said we were going to talk about that - and plant variety protection is a form of intellectual property rights given to the breeder of a new plant variety. So, basically, after being given that protection, the breeder and the Institute where it was created had the right to sell the variety for a period of time. Basically, this gives an incentive for plant breeding and innovation by rewarding breeders for their work in developing new and improved plant varieties.

Kerner was created in Germany to be a quality grape that is easy to grow in cool climate conditions. Alto Adige, which is located in the Dolomite mountain range near Austria and Switzerland, can experience extremely cold temperatures. Kerner's tolerance to cold and frost resistance made it a great option for cultivation in this region. Kerer is considered robust and hardy (like you Carmela), and it buds late, which generally helps it avoid damage from spring frosts.

So, it was kind of perfect for the Alto Adige area because of the German language and Austrian roots in the region, and because it was made to be grown in just the kind of conditions that exist there. So, second mystery solved.

Finally, the reason has started to be produced less in Germany is for a few reasons. First, Kerner was originally known as a workhorse wine that was more favored for producing a quantity over quality. We have mentioned this before, but being called a workhorse, not a huge compliment. Because of this, it was often found in lower quality blends, and so it just did not have an awesome reputation in Germany. As a result, starting in the early 1990s, Germans started focusing on other wines.

The good news is that the Italians picked it up and are known to make some pretty outstanding wines from it. Over time, winemakers in Alto Adige discovered Kerner's potential to produce wonderful dry aromatic wines - something we talked about in January in episode 155 on Aromatic White Wines. If you remember from that episode, Carmela, we talked about Terpenes, which are aromatic compounds in plants, and aromatic white wines are made from grapes that have a high concentration of terpenes.

Kerner is often compared to Riesling, for obvious reasons since one of its parents is Riesling, and because they are both known as aromatic and high in acid. However, Kerner tends to be fuller in body. Today, some consider Kerner to be one of the best white wines in Italy, winning many awards and accolades, and many feel that the best Kerner is grown in Italy.

Even today, though, Kerner is still not a hugely planted wine, even in Alto Adige, where it only makes up about 2% of the total cultivation area. So, despite being considered a very good Italian wine, not a ton of people know about it, so that is why we are covering it today!

So, on that note, I think it’s time to learn a little more about the specific wines we are drinking today. Whaddya say?


Kerner Wines We Chose for This Episode 19:19

As usual, the wines we have chosen for this episode are under $25 each, and they should be relatively easy to find because I bought one of them on wine.com, and although I bought the other at a local Seattle wine shop we love called Esquin, it can also be found at wine.com. 

Kerner is not going to be the easiest wine to find, but if you have a wine shop with a good Italian wine selection, you should be able to find it, and you can and should of course ask your local wine shop to help you find it, because they will be able to hunt it down. 

The first wine we are going to try today is the 2023 Kellerei Bozen Puntscheit Kerner, and from the name itself, you can hear the Austrian and German roots, even though this is an Italian wine. Kind of interesting, right?!? Doesn’t sound like a wine from Italy, do it?

This wine comes from an area called the Isarco valley, and it is located at between 600 and 800 meters above sea-level, which is about 2,000 - 2,500 feet high, so a decent elevation. The grapes were harvested in October, and the winery says “The carefully selected grapes are gently pressed and fermented in stainless steel tanks at a controlled temperature. Stainless steel is also used for maturation to keep the wine fresh and crisp.” So, no oak on this wine.

What is interesting about this wine is that, although it is considered to be a crisp wine, it is pretty high in alcohol for a white wine at 13.5%. So, it could be a dangerous wine if it is an easy sipper!

It did get some good ratings including a 90 from Wine Enthusiast so that is good to know, but I don’t have a ton else to tell you so let’s move to the next wine which is the 

2023 Abbazia di Novacella Kerner, which also comes from the Isarco valley, and sounds a bit more Italian. The winery that makes it, Abbazia di Novacella, claims to be Italy's northernmost winery, which is kind of cool, and it is located at 1,800 feet above sea level. They also say that the winery dates back to the year 1142 where it was founded by Augustinian Monks who continue to work on the vines there today. Those crazy monks and their alcohol production, amiright?!?

Don’t sleep on the monks, though. In 2009, Italy’s influential Gambero Rosso named Celestino Lucin, the abbey’s enologist, Winemaker of the Year. BTW, Abbazia means abbey in Italian, so the wine is indeed named after the abbey. Although I don’t think the winemaker is a monk. 

This wine has won several accolades, including the Best Value Award from Gambero Rosso and a 91 rating from Vinous

The wine is 100% Kerner, and the soil is made up of hard, metamorphic rocks left behind by glaciers, meaning that it is well draining, which grapes like. It is also aged for six months in stainless steel tanks and they use indigenous yeasts. As you might expect, the monks practice organic winemaking. Which is nice. And they also generate their own hydroelectric power and heat from wood chips, making it carbon neutral. Pretty cool. As I understand it, today there are only 26 monks that live there, but they have a staff of about 100 employees work to make the wine. 

But, I think that is enough information - let’s get to drinking! We’ll take a quick break and be right back. And, if you have these wines or similar wines, drink along with us to get some participation points, which you can trade-in for free stickers. You just need to send me an email with your mailing address, and I will get those “I drink with The Wine Pair Podcast” stickers over to you!


LINKS TO SOURCES FOR THESE SPECIFIC WINES




2023 Kellerei Bozen Puntscheit Kerner, 2023 Abbazia di Novacella Kerner Wine Tasting, Pairing, and Review 24:34

Wine: Kellerei Bozen Puntscheit Kerner
Region: Italy, Alto Adige
Year: 2023
Price: $23.99
Retailer: Mad Wine/Esquin
Alcohol: 13.5%
Grapes: Kerner
Professional Rating: WE 90 Vivino 4.0

What we tasted and smelled in this Kellerei Bozen Puntscheit Kerner:

  • Color: Light, a little viscous, pear colored
  • On the nose: Pretty, refreshing, apple, pear, flowers, smells like Spring, peach, apricot, a little heat, clean, grass
  • In the mouth: Green apple, Granny Smith, tart, rocks, dry on the end, a little bitterness, a little lemon or lime, very pretty and pleasant wine, a bit dangerous easy drinking although medium bodied, very drinkable, as it warms up it gets more complex and orange flavor


Food to pair with this Kellerei Bozen Puntscheit Kerner: A great fish and shellfish wine, shrimp pasta, flaky fish, baked clams, perfect for Feast of the Seven Fishes, spicy foods would work as well
 
As a reminder on our rating scale, we rate on a scale of 1-10, with no half points, where 7 and above means that we would buy it, and 4 and below means that we are likely to pour it down the sink, and a 5 or 6 means we are likely to drink it and finish it, but we are probably not going to buy it. 

Kellerei Bozen Puntscheit Kerner Wine Rating: 

  • Joe: 8/10
  • Carmela: 8/10


Wine: Abbazia di Novacella Kerner
Region: Italy, Alto Adige
Year: 2023
Price: $24.99
Retailer: wine.com
Alcohol: 13.5%
Grapes: Kerner
Professional Rating: V 91, JS 90 Vivino 4.0

What we tasted and smelled in this Abbazia di Novacella Kerner:

  • Color: Pear color
  • On the nose: Very aromatic, peach, apricot, kiwi, fruity, flowery, fresh
  • In the mouth: A little spicy, black pepper, orange, peel, orange rind, peach, sweet red bell pepper, carrot, rich, complex, a lot going on, medium bodied, feels adventurous. Outstanding wine. Very different experience than the first one.


Food to pair with this Abbazia di Novacella Kerner: Very versatile with food, fish, yes, but pork, chicken, Thanksgiving dinner, teriyaki chicken, barbecued pork, grilled vegetables, pizza

Abbazia di Novacella Kerner Wine Rating: 

  • Joe: 9/10
  • Carmela: 8/10


Which one of these are you finishing tonight?

  • Carmela: Abbazia di Novacella Kerner
  • Joe: Abbazia di Novacella Kerner



Taste profiles expected from Kerner   38:34

  • General 
    • Floral notes, green apple, apricot, tangerine, tropical fruit, grapefruit, mango, and fresh herb aromas. Taste: high acidity, apple, pear, apricot, citrus, and stone fruits, sometimes earthy minerality.
  • Kellerei Bozen Puntscheit Kerner
    • Winery: Aroma: intensive, light note of nutmeg, aromatic, fruity with notes of peach, apricot and mandarin orange. Taste: dry, full-flavored and juicy
    • WE: Heady white flowers gently drift through the nose like a morning breeze on an alpine bike ride, with herbs and a hint of tire wafting by. The palate reveals vibrant lime and lemon notes with a textured, leafy finish. This Kerner captures the essence of a crisp, invigorating high-altitude experience
  • Abbazia di Novacella Kerner
    • Red Feet: Peaches, apricots, and tones of tangerines on the nose. Medium weight, very lively, juicy, and sleek on the palate, with orchard fruits balanced by a mineral backbone. Nectarines, pears, apples and tangerines linger in this vibrant, fresh white
    • Vinous: The 2023 Kerner is delicately floral in the glass, with a whiff of sweet spice and candied lime forming its bouquet. This is built on energy with vibrant acidity and a combination of saline minerals and tart citrus, adding a zesty character throughout. The 2023 reverberates with tension through the long and cheek-puckering finale with hints of chamomile and lemon zest.
    • JS: A fresh and creamy white with aromas of sliced pears, peaches and lemons. Medium-bodied, lightly pithy and refreshing



What is your verdict on Kerner? 40:39
A great wine, a great surprise, on our list, something to look out for. 


Outro and how to find The Wine Pair Podcast 42:05

Ok, so, Carmela, it’s time for us to go, but before we do, we want to thank you very much for listening to us - and if you haven’t done so yet, now would be the perfect time to follow or subscribe to our podcast and also a fantastic time to leave us a nice rating and review on our website or Apple podcasts or other podcast app - and it is an awesome and free way to support us and help us grow listeners.

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