All around the Kalterer See in the area around Bolzano you can’t escape the wine. Everywhere grows vine. Everywhere you see wine. At every corner you can taste wine. There are wine taverns for drinking wine. You can walk wine hiking trails or go vine learning paths. And it seems that every day there are at least three events concerning the subject. You cannot get away from it. Everybody talks about it. You get a very long wine list at the restaurants and in most of them the service staff is very competent. Everything here breathes wine…
We were very lucky and could meet several wine-grower and now our new hobby is wine yard walking. Steve Jobs is known for having done alle meetings while walking. But when you do it in a vine yard it gets even more intense.
We learned so much about the history of wine in South Tyrol and in the region around the Kalterer See. About the old breeds Vernatsch and Lagrein. About the change in wine growing. Away from easy drinkable vine towards a quality product. We met wine grower from old and established families who pass the secrets about wine making on from generation to generation. And where it is absolutely clear that you will become a wine grower even if you are enrolled to become something else first. One time wine growing – every time wine growing. Eventually you will come back and feel committed to the family tradition. You step into the company of your parents and take over the visions of your great-grandfather.
Vine growing is lengthy. Not fashionable or trendy. No hype. It is indeed so that the wine grower today sells what his father or grandfather has been growing and planning. Wine needs time. If everything turns out well as a young wine grower you can enjoy your own great wine for your fiftieth birthday. If it works out fine. Sometimes something goes wrong. The root does not fit the vine or there is a storm or frost.
But the region here is good for vine. For certain species. Every freckle of a wine yard is different. Different ground, different microclimate, different solar irradiation. We have heard a lot about clay and limestone and winds and hours of sunshine.
And then the cellars. Each wine cellar is different. Different barrels, different methods. The age of tiled wine bunkers is over. Now there are steal cylinders which can also be oval or they stand outside in the backyard and are cooled during summer time. There are again concrete barrels but in a new design, tulip-shaped and with the latest technology.
We have heard much about fermentation and storage and about time. Again and again times. X months in the barrel and x months afterwards oaked. Time, time, time. Wine growers have to be patient.
Then there is the filling. That is about names, grabe varieties, locations. About labels, logos and lettering, about art and design.
And then are some people, which still want more. They travel the world and look for new challenges. Buy vineyards at the Mosel or Saar and try to make there something completely different and new or they discover something very old and revive it…
You could listen for hours and hear different philosophies. Best with a glas of wine. And you will hear stories about the good old times of Vernatsch and the newfangled ideas of amphorae wine. You will hear of acres and cultivated areas and markets and export sales. And you will hear some criticism and praise and schwarmerei and approval.
But one thing they have all in common: A great passion! For wine!
Folgende Winzer haben wir besucht:
Castel Sallegg
Castel Sallegg – Matthias Hauser
Weingut Tiefenbrunner Schloss Turmhof
Weingut Castelfelder
Weingut Castelfeder – Ivan Giovanett
Weingut Hofstätter
Weingut Hofstätter – Martin Foradori
