Erste & Neue, Alto Adige

Alto Adige is a particularly idiosyncratic region. Hard against the border of Austria, the local language is German but the inhabitants are proudly Italian. The individual vineyard holdings are so small that for the most part co-operatives represent the only way to make wine at a viable level and much of the best wine comes from them. The Erste & Neue Cantina Sociale was founded in 1900 when several wine growers came together with a mission to produce their own wine rather than sell the fruit in the open market. E&N now have 550 different growers from which to source the fruit, all based around the beautiful Lake Kaltern. The total area of cultivation is 280 hectares and is distributed over 17 different vineyards with several unique ‘cru’ among them. One of the advantages of having this system is that there is a huge labour force, so all pruning, vineyard management and of course harvesting is not only done by hand, but often by the very family that owns the vineyard itself. Pride is a wonderful motivator!