"Ready for a holiday"

Let’s go with a case of the best South Tyrolean wines

August 2018

South Tyrolean wines have largely preserved their originality and regional identity: they taste of wind and weather, gravel, moraine and clay soils, sometimes like an ideal vintage and sometimes a wayward vintage.

But these are always wines with a clearly recognizable style, they are as irregular and exciting as the mountains slopes on which they are grown, thus arousing curiosity. We have selected a dozen bottles that we would most definitely take to a desert island. Wines of international composition await discerning wine connoisseurs in the well-stocked wine shops of VINUM-Hotels Südtirol.

Pinot Noir "Urbano", Hofstätter Winery, Tramin

Hofstätter is the largest and most prestigious Pinot Noir winery in Italy - thanks to the company’s Senior Paolo Foradori and Junior Martin Foradori and their right hand Franz Oberhofer, who have been keeping spoiled, red wine divas happy for over 50 years: with old vine pergola and ancient vine pergola, with young and old espalier trellising, with vertically and horizontally terraced slopes, with continuous new cloning attempts. "Urbano" from the best Pinot Noir location at Grand Cru Mazon is a rich, elegant wine that needs a long maturation period, but then on holiday with our case of wine, we are rewarded with black cherries, cedar, cocoa, vanilla notes and a seductively long finish.

Lagrein "Abtei Riserva", Muri-Gries Cloister Winery

Lagrein is the most renowned South Tyrolean red grape variety - meanwhile, alongside traditionalists, there are also modernists who sometimes soften the wild Lagrein too much. Christian Werth's Lagrein "Abbey Riserva" is the Lagrein lighthouse of conservative values. Which does not mean overly-conservative, but a wondrous balance of modernity (oak barrel aging, Guyot cultivation) and tradition (prominent, but never "furry" tannins; the abbey’s own short-stemmed Lagrein vines).

Merlot "Brenntal", Kurtatsch Winery

The Brenntal location borders the northern foothills of the limestone massif on which the village of Kurtatsch sits. This mighty wall of rock acts like a heat storage component, enabling Merlot grapes to develop a creamy, soft fruit pulp. Cellarman Othmar Donà has succeeded in preserving the wonderful elegance of its stunning volume through careful aging in moderately toasted oak barrels. With its complex berry-like and exotic, spicy aromas, the dark red "Brenntal" Merlot is the perfect bottle for an opulent, luxurious evening in the cool shade of island palms.