Re-release of Ep 310: Elena Walch - The Quality Revolutionary of Alto Adige, Italy
Wine for Normal People
Wine for Normal People
4.6 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 13 May 2026
⏱️ 45 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
I couldn't get a new podcast out with my travels from Alto Adige with the patrons, but I thought it was timely I re-released this show since I was just there. It's not ALL old hat -- I did a light edit, improved the sound quality, and recorded a quick intro to this re-release of Ep 310: Elena Walch - The Quality Revolutionary of Alto Adige, Italy.
Elena Walch is a winery with an essential role in the quality revolution of Alto Adige, Italy. Alto Adige is in the northeast corner of Italy and although it is one of the smallest Italian regions (0.7% of wine production) it has a nearly unlimited variety of wines that offer delicate, unique flavor profiles.
Photo: A view of Alto Adige from my travels
Located south of the Alps, in the foothills of the Dolomite Mountains (where the ice mummy was found!), vineyards here are planted steep slopes, river valleys, and some warmer plains. The vast differences in microclimates and soils in this sloping terrain make wines that have ample fruit but beautiful acidity that keep them crisp and bright.
In this show I talk to Karoline Walch, the head of the winery and daughter of founder Elena Walch. She teaches us about Alto Adige, and then discusses the amazing story of her mother and how she changed the orientation of the region from bulk to quality.
Photo: Julia, Elena, and Karoline Walch from www.elenawalch.com
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Wine for Normal People, the podcast for people who like wine, but not the snobbery that goes with it. |
| 0:15.9 | I'm your host, Elizabeth Schneider, author of the Wine for Normal People book, and Certified Wine Dork. |
| 0:21.8 | Join me as I hit record on this conversation with a friend in the wine industry. |
| 0:26.2 | This and all shows with guests are informal, but educational discussions between passionate |
| 0:30.9 | wine friends. All guests are personal friends or friends of friends in wine, not strangers. |
| 0:36.5 | And like any conversation between friends, |
| 0:38.5 | we're going to talk back and forth, interrupt each other, laugh, have fun, debate, tough questions, |
| 0:44.1 | voice opinions. Most of all, enjoy sharing our time together and with you. If you're in, |
| 0:48.9 | pour yourself a glass, pull up a chair, and join us for this great chat. |
| 0:54.3 | Before we get started, a quick thanks to our sponsor, Wine Access, for supporting this show. |
| 0:59.5 | If you love discovering great wine but don't want to waste money guessing what to order, |
| 1:03.5 | Wine Access makes it so easy. |
| 1:05.8 | They work with top winemakers and sommeliers to find exceptional bottles you normally wouldn't find on your own, |
| 1:11.7 | all shipped directly to your door. |
| 1:14.0 | Go to wineaccess.com slash WFNP. |
| 1:17.8 | That's wine, ac c-E-S-S dot com slash WFNP. |
| 1:23.3 | This show is a re-release of a recording I did many years ago live with Carolina Walk. Now, she is the daughter of |
| 1:34.4 | Elena Walk, who is the famed wine pioneer in Alto Adi J. And I just returned from my trip to |
| 1:43.1 | Alto Adi J. And unfortunately, the winery was not open for tourism, so we were not able to visit them. |
| 1:49.7 | But this show gives such an wonderful view of what Alto Wad J is, climate, the location, the history, |
| 1:58.3 | and then talks about one of the major pioneers for quality in the region, |
| 2:04.0 | Eleanor Walk. She is a person. She's a woman. She's actually not that old, but she's handed |
... |
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