Cellar Profile
This organic winery is situated in the picturesque village bearing its name in Alto Adige, nestled in the Southern Alps and Dolomite mountain ranges. Its hand-crafted mountain wines are painstakingly made with as little intervention as possible to best exemplify the unique terroir of the region. These red wine vineyards have some of the hottest daytime temperatures in all of Italy, rising to 40℃ during the summer months, but with a significant drop in temperature in the evening to retain freshness. The whites come from the hamlets of Hofstatt and Penon, with heroic vineyards planted on exceedingly steep mountainsides at elevations up to 2500 ft above sea level. These rocky outcrops have a multitude of geological peculiarities, giving their wines intense, saline-like minerality. These are amongst the most aromatic and flavourful white wines on earth, ranging in style from steely dry to lusciously sweet.
Region
The region of Trentino-Alto Adige is bordered by East and North Tyrol (Austria) to the northeast and north respectively, by Graubünden (Switzerland) to the northwest and by the Italian regions of Lombardy to the west and Veneto to the south and southeast. It covers 13,607 square kilometres, is extremely mountainous and includes a large part of the Dolomites and the southern Alps. Südtirol (where Cantina Kurtatsch is located) has an area of 7,398 square kilometres, all of it mountainous land covered by vast forests. The climate here is Mediterranean (hot summer, cold winters) owing to the influence of the many mountain ranges (> 3,000 metres above sea level) and the wide valleys through which flow the main river, the Adige, and its numerous tributaries.
Vineyard
SONNTALER is an assemblage of different Schiava varieties, grown on organically-farmed vines between 60 and 90 years old at an elevation of 300-400 masl. These old vines produce naturally low yields but exceptionally consistent and high quality wines. The iron-rich red sands and loam sit on a large plate of dolomite, with a fairly steep slope. The sandy soils accentuate primary fruit and the vineyard naturally has less sun exposure during the hottest part of the day to retain freshness. The 2024 vintage produced grapes with excellent balance, acidity and ripeness.
Winemaking
Grapes are hand-harvested at optimal ripeness and pressed into stainless steel for cool fermentation and maceration. Malolactic conversion and aging takes place in concrete, before the wine is lightly filtered and bottled.
Tasting Notes
Herbal and spicy notes unite with enticing cherry, raspberry and forest fruit aromas. Elegant and lean with fine-grained tannins giving structure to the fruit-forward flavours. Enjoy lightly chilled with grilled pork, grilled trout or portobello mushroom burgers.
Varieties
The German name for Schiava, Vernatsch, derives from Latin vernaculus or "native", and refers to its far-reaching history in Alto Adige. Also known as Trollinger, it is grown throughout many German and Italian wine regions. The styles coming from Südtirol tend to be light in colour, brimming with fresh red fruit characteristics and are most often dry, medium-light bodied with naturally high levels of acidity.