St. Pauls in South Tyrol: Ambitious Serenity

"What is most important to us at the St. Pauls Winery is the bond with our wine village. We are one of the smaller cooperatives in South Tyrol and therefore do not have to market large quantities. This makes it possible for us to work relatively independently of market trends," says Wolfgang Tratter, cellar master of this friendly cooperative since 2006. But he has the ambition "to compete with the best. Not only in South Tyrol, but also on a national and international level".

And the St. Pauls Winery can do that, because the sites here have a lot to offer. Especially with the most important grape variety in St. Pauls, the Pinot Blanc: it has found an excellent terrain here and comes purely in the top wine "Sanctissimus". The vines were planted in 1889 and produce very low yields, but concentrated wines. It is fermented with the skins in clay amphorae and is an elegant white wine, profound and carried by great inner peace, with fine, almost dark fruit and minerality. It thus embodies the essence of Paulser Weißburgunder and must be counted among the great white wines of South Tyrol.

Since 2021, there has been a new premium line, the 'Alte Reben'. It consists of four single-varietal wines that powerfully reflect the different terroirs of the winery: Pinot Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir and Lagrein. The grapes come from selected sites with decades-old vines that have been among the best for generations. The aim is to achieve a fine balance between freshness, juiciness and depth.

Only about 20,000 bottles of the bottle-fermented sparkling wine Praeclarus are produced per year, "which makes it possible for us to offer a high-quality sparkling wine independent of fashions and public taste," explains chairman Dieter Haas. In concrete terms, this means: "We want a sparkling wine that not only has bread-crust aromas and other characteristics typical of sparkling wines, but also has something to offer as a wine. In which the typical characteristics of the variety - we focus on Chardonnay here - are combined with creaminess and saltiness." Since the end of 2020, in addition to the Brut with a residual sugar of just under 5 g/l, there is also the vintage sparkling wine Pas Dosé, which is characterised by 60 months of bottle ageing. Both sparkling wines are stored in a bunker from the Second World War according to the motto: 'Sparkling wine bunkered to perfection'.

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"My aim is to produce 'cheeky' wines with freshness, juiciness, animating acidity, which are fun to drink. At the same time, they should have substance and complexity, because for me, having fun with wine also means being able to engage intensively with it. And that's what I want with all wines! No matter whether it is a fresh or mature white wine, a Pinot Noir or a dark-fruited Lagrein," Klaus Lentsch describes his ideas. The winery is relatively young - the first wines were pressed here in 2012. Klaus Lentsch, however, is an old hand in the South Tyrolean wine business. Before he acquired the farm in St. Pauls, he managed the family-owned H. Lentsch winery in Branzoll.

And he has already gained a lot of experience as a winemaker there, which he can use on his newly acquired vineyards in Überetsch, Unterland and Eisacktal. There he produces Grüner Veltliner and Pinot Noir at the Hemberghof in Atzwang, and the grapes for the dry Goldmuskateller and Weißburgunder come from Kaltern. Gewürztraminer is grown in St. Pauls, Sauvignon Blanc in Girlan and the heat-loving varieties Pinot Grigio, Lagrein and Cabernet in Unterland. "This variety of sites in a wide range of zones allows us to grow each variety exactly where it feels most at home. I don't have to compromise on quality, because I'm not forced to grow a variety in an unsuitable location just to have a certain wine on offer. On the other hand, it is a delightful challenge to get to know the respective sites better and better over time and to produce ever better, more expressive and, above all, distinctive wines."

For Klaus Lentsch, both personal contact with his customers and the combination of culinary delights and wine are important. He therefore always offers a "Wine Talk in cosy company" on Saturday mornings, where you can get to know his wines together with typical dishes for a contribution towards expenses of 20 euros.

Four generously equipped flats with the best panoramic view over St. Pauls, the surrounding vineyards and the South Tyrolean mountains are available for holiday guests.

Josef Pichler and his son Johannes produce elegant, fine growths with good ageing potential and are both likeable, lively, sensitive and extremely knowledgeable winemakers. Father Josef, who mainly takes care of the work in the vineyards, was one of those South Tyrolean winegrowers who decided back in the late 1970s not to deliver part of their grapes to the local cooperative, but to press them themselves and sell them under their own label - initially only to visitors to the farm, later also to selected restaurants and resellers.

In the meantime, the clientele is so large that many wines are sold out before the new vintage comes onto the market. If the family had to sell a large part of their grapes in the past, they now have to buy or lease new vineyards to meet the increased demand.

The portfolio shows that at the Bergmannhof, a sense of tradition and a joy of discovery harmonise perfectly. In addition to the classic South Tyrolean growths Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay (in future also Pinot Blanc), Vernatsch, Lagrein as well as Cabernet and Merlot, there are exciting new products here. For example, the mash-fermented and clay-amphora-aged 'Eart', a cuvée of Sauvignon, Chardonnay and Manzoni Bianco, or the Vernatsch 'Hoamet', which is partly fermented spontaneously with the stems and bottled unfiltered only after two years of maturation in used Tonneau barrels. All of the wines, including the powerful red wine selections and the structured Chardonnay Riserva, are distinguished not only by their complexity but also primarily by their animating character.

Since 2020, the farm has officially been in the conversion phase to organic farming. The Pichler family has been doing without mineral fertilisers since 2004, no herbicides have been used since 2008, and since 2014 fungal infestations have been counteracted exclusively with copper and sulphur preparations. For the Pichlers, ecological responsibility is not limited to the work in the vineyard and in the cellar. They consider their entire farm from this point of view and have therefore had themselves certified as a myclimate farm.

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"I wanted to make wine that tastes good to my wife, to me and to my friends," Lorenz San Nicolò answers when asked what motivated him to leave his well-paid, secure job as a geologist in Milan and try his luck as a winemaker in his South Tyrolean homeland on a mini-winery in the Unterrain district. So he had some prior knowledge about the basis of every good wine, the soil. For the work in the vineyard and cellar, he could count on the help of experienced winemakers and oenologists. After all, these are the friends who were supposed to like his wine.

The vineyards are located right next to the estate and are suitable for heat-loving varieties. That's why Lorenz San Nicolò chose the aromatic Goldmuskateller as well as Merlot as the red wine variety. The first vines were planted in 2012 and the first wine bottled in 2015. Satisfied with the qualities, Lorenz San Nicolò decided to expand the production and plant Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Franc as well as some Petit Manseng. Nevertheless, there are not more than one hectare of vineyards and they are not intended to be, because "because I am so small, I can look after the winery all by myself and do everything the way I see fit".

The Goldmuskateller is aged in steel tanks and goes on sale after one year. The Merlot needs a year of ageing in tonneau and one to two years of bottle ageing, depending on the vintage. These two together yield around 3,000 bottles a year. When the new vineyards are in production, it should be just under 7,000. So the quantitative dimensions will remain rather modest in the future. Like his neighbour, friend and advisor Josef Johannes Pichler from the Bergmannhof winery, Nicolò San Lorenz works as close to nature as possible, completely avoiding herbicides and fertilisers. This will not change in the future - on the contrary. After completing her studies in oenology, his daughter wants to push organic farming even further.

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The winery Hans-Jörg Donà is a project of restlessness. After 31 years as cellar master of the Burgräfler Kellerei in Meran, Hans Jörg Donà has exchanged the rather order-driven winemaking in the cooperative winery for independent work as a freelance winemaker. He now exclusively cultivates his own vineyards in the Eppan district of Unterrain and in Dorf Tirol near Meran. His decision was not based on financial considerations. For him, it was about the joy and pleasure of producing his own, high-quality and above all independent wines, which are characterised by their origin as well as by his ideas of quality.

These are very high, because "why should I be satisfied with mediocrity when I can afford - because of my financial independence - to make what really interests me? And those are wines that are at the top of the range in terms of quality." Hans-Jörg Donà is a very self-confident, but also a humble winemaker. "Without expertise and hard work, you don't achieve anything in life. But you also need luck. I am lucky to have vineyards, especially in Unterrain but also with my high sites in Dorf Tirol, where I can produce exciting wines with alpine character and longevity."

A prime example is his Terlaner Chardonnay, whose vines are right around the house in Unterrain. Like all of Hans-Jörg Donà's white wines, it matures for about six months in five- to six-year-old barrique barrels, which no longer release any flavour but support the wine's structure. In Unterrain, it is shaped by the deep loamy-gravelly soils with a lot of lime. This gives the wine "at the age of four, to six years, a saltiness and tension that makes it interesting and easy to drink". Due to the small quantity and the popularity of his wines in the upscale South Tyrolean gastronomy, they are usually sold out the year after the harvest.

In addition to the aforementioned Terlan Chardonnay, Hans-Jörg Donà also produces Pinot Blanc and Sauvignon Blanc, whose grapes come from high, sunny vineyards in Dorf Tirol. They combine fruity richness with alpine freshness. The red wines are the South Tyrolean classic Vernatsch and a cuvée of Merlot and Lagrein. Vernatsch is a classic representative of its kind, tasty and uncomplicated in the best sense. It is the only wine from his range for which Hans-Jörg Donà explicitly recommends drinking in the first two years after the harvest. The powerful Merlot/Lagrein cuvée, which matures longer in the cellar, should only be opened after five years.

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At the beginning of this millennium, Fritz Dellago, a wine enthusiast - his cellar contains about 4,000 bottles from all the wine-growing regions of the world - decided to turn some of the grapes from his vineyards into his own wine and offer it to his hotel and restaurant guests. Fritz Dellago's enthusiasm is also evident in the large range of wines at Schloss Korb. Grapes for twelve different wines as well as a sparkling wine are grown on only 4.5 hectares. And you will not only find many different varieties here, but also some that are unusual for South Tyrol, such as Zweigelt, Petit Manseng and Incrocio Manzoni.

Especially the Zweigelt is close to Fritz Dellago's heart, because his wife comes from Salzburg. He also wanted to show "that what the Austrians can do is no problem for us South Tyroleans". He has succeeded - several times, in fact, because from the Zweigelt he produces a hearty, young red wine, an intense rosé and a high-quality, bottle-fermented rosé sparkling wine. The Petit Manseng can hang on the vine for a long time because of its thick berry skins - the grapes are not harvested until January. It is particularly suitable for the production of a sweet wine, which has a very fresh, animating, "northern" character due to the high acidity of the variety. This also applies to the white wine rarity Incrocio Manzoni, a cross between Riesling and Pinot Blanc, which is becoming increasingly popular in South Tyrol because it produces juicy, animating wines with good ageing potential. The wine from it is therefore only put on sale after one year of bottle maturity. This applies to the Chardonnay matured in the concrete egg.

In addition, the range includes the classic South Tyrolean varieties Pinot Blanc, Sauvignon, Traminer, Pinot Grigio, Riesling, Pinot Noir as well as Cabernet and Merlot, from which the cuvée 'Korbianer' is made. The only thing missing is Lagrein, because "we don't have the right sites for it with our vineyards at 450 to 500 metres above sea level. We are primarily suited to the production of fresh, animating wines," reports cellar master Stefan Donà.

The cellar buildings of Schloss Korb are unusual - a bunker from the Second World War. Where civilians used to have to seek shelter from bombs, the wines now ripen in an optimal environment at a constant temperature of 13 °C, creating a positive energy in the former war building. Sophisticated works of art support this aesthetically. The five-metre-thick walls now protect from the inside to the outside, because groups can celebrate there carefree without disturbing the hotel guests next door. Due to the popularity of the hotel and its adjoining restaurant, Schloss Korb wines are rarely found in wine shops, as the entire production of an average of 14,000 bottles per year is drunk by guests on site or taken home.

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