the Alto Adige

Trentino-Alto Adige/SudTyrol is a stunningly beautiful, mountainous region in the Italian Alps, just above Lombardy and Veneto, and bordered by Austria & Switzerland to the north.

First conquered by the Romans in 15 BCE to secure the Alpine passes, it passed from Rome through the Merovingian and Carolinian Empires into the Holy Roman Empire in the 9th Century, remaining as part of the Empire and its successor the Austrian Empire until Trentino was incorporated into Italy under Napoleon I in 1810. South Tyrol passed under Italian control after Austria’s defeat in WWI in 1918.

Trentino has for centuries been the more Italicized portion of the valley, centered on the provincial capital of Trento, while the South Tyrol with its capital at Bolzano is still heavily Germanic, with a majority of the population speaking German. The two provinces comprise an Autonomous Region, which uses both Italian and German as official languages. The Regional Assembly still switches its seat biennally between the two cities.

The Italian name Alto Adige refers to the province’s position along the upper reaches of the Adige River, which flows down from its source in the Alpine glaciers to the north end of Lake Garda. The climate is continental/Alpine, with warm summers and cold/snowy winters. The vineyards huddled along the valley slopes and floor are on limestone and limestone gravel river deposits.

With its limestone soils and cooling breezes, the region is perfect for cool-climate grapes that desire a longer hang-time and is thus famed for its Pinots Bianco, Grigio and Nero, Gewurztraminer (originating at Tramin, a village in the valley), Riesling, and others including Lagrein and Muller-Thurgau.

Peter Zemmer

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Peter is the third generation of Zemmers to work the family weingut (wine estate). The family home is in Cortina all’Adige, and the winery is downtown in the hamlet’s commercial center.

For Peter Zemmer, sustainability is not just a trend but a standard of living. A zero-carbon winery, all their electricity is produced by solar energy with photovoltaic panels on the roofs of the winery. Vineyard practices include green cover crops and no herbicides. Cellar practices are natural.

The wines

Zemmer produces a range of wines including still whites, still reds and sparkling wines. Our focus is on his Santa Giada Pinot Grigio, a beautiful and precise Grigio with the intense fruit achieved by long slow ripening in the valley’s cool climate. Sustainably grown, vinified in stainless and with only a light clarification, this is what cool-climate Grigio is all about… notes of lime blossom, citrus, crisp acidity…