The Wines of Alto Adige

BY IAN D'AGATA | DECEMBER 4, 2018

Alto Adige arguably makes Italy’s best white wines. Climate change and more judicious use of oak have also improved the red wines, especially the delicious one-two punch delivered by the Schiava varieties and Lagrein. The odd bottle of outstanding Pinot Nero and Cabernet Sauvignon rounds out a truly noteworthy offering of world-class wines. 

In matters of wine, it is not an exaggeration to say that Alto Adige offers something for everyone. And it really could not be otherwise. Tucked away in Italy’s farthest northeastern reaches, in between the Alps to the north and Trentino to the south, Alto Adige features one of Italy’s smallest and most diverse grape-growing habitats. Vineyards are a common sight not only on the steep mountain slopes plunging down into the Isarco and Adige river valleys, but also on the warmer flatland plains of the Bassa Atesina on the border with Trentino, where the far more temperate climate allows not just grape vines but also olive and fig trees to grow. Consequently, the multitude of different soils and very diverse mesoclimates are home to over twenty different grape cultivars planted at a variety of altitudes ranging from close to sea level to roughly 900 meters above sea level.

A typical mountain landscape of Alto Adige

Alto Adige: What’s In A Name

Italy is subdivided into twenty regions, of which Trentino-Alto Adige is, at 1,650 km2, the 12th largest. In fact, the region comprises two very different autonomous provinces officially recognized as such in 1972: Trento and Bolzano. Hence, Alto Adige is known as the “autonomous province of Bolzano-Alto Adige” (though everybody refers to it as Alto Adige for short). In contrast to largely Italian-speaking Trentino, Alto Adige speaks mostly German (although Italian is reportedly still the most common language in five Alto Adige communes: Bolzano, Bronzolo, Laives, Salorno and Vadena). Actually, in both Trentino and Alto-Adige (and Veneto too), a separate ethnic group also speaks Ladin, a Rhaeto-Romance language (the Ladin territory is made up of five valleys in the Dolomite Alps: the Fascia Valley in Trentino; Val Gardena and Val Badia in Alto Adige; and Livinallongo and Ampezzo in Veneto). In any case, Trentino-Alto Adige is one of Italy’s most sparsely populated regions (only Basilicata, Molise and Valle D’Aosta have fewer inhabitants), and the region’s population density drops precipitously in the highest mountain areas.