Trentino-Alto Adige wines

Only about 15 percent of Trentino-Alto Adige's land is cultivable. But its climate, characterised by very cold winters, but also influenced by the lakes and rivers, creates temperate microclimates ideal for viticulture.

The region has a total of around 11,000 hectares under vine, for the most part trained on the overhead pergola system, and an annual production of 850,000 hectolitres, approximately 500,000 hectolitres of which consist of red DOC wines.

The production of wines is centred in two large DOC zones: Trentino in the south and Alto Adige or Südtirol in the north.

Both provinces are known in Italy primarily for popular white Pinot Grigio and Chardonnay, though Sauvignon, Pinot Bianco, Riesling, Müller Thurgau, Gewürztraminer and Sylvaner can be equally attractive. Despite growing demand for whites, there are also many examples of outstanding red wines, such as Teroldego and Marzemino. Furthermore the attempts to introduce Bordeaux grapes into the local soil, learning from the French experience, have been very successful.

Trentino produces sparkling wines (spumante) following the Champagne method, but the sparkling wine producers of Trentino, with almost a century's experience behind them and an annual production of six million bottles, have drawn up and been granted a special appellation, DOC Trento.

New wine
If it happens to you to see a bunch of flowers on the threshold of an Altoatesina house do not hesitate and enter and ask for the new wine: this is the Toerggelen, a farm custom that was current use after the harvest, when the work in the fields was finished and the farmers had time to move or to rest. During this period they visited their relatives and neighbours to taste "Sußer", the must, or "Nuier", the new wine, gone with speck, "Köstn" (roast chestnuts) and the typical bread, which is diffrent from place to place. Traditionally this is the moment when you join with the others, in happiness. Nowadays the tradition repeats from the end of September until the first days of November.