Story: South Tyrol-Trentino | Wine region

The two unequal brothers in northern Italy have continued to develop very unevenly over the past decade, although unusually strong cooperatives dominate the picture in both parts of the region. But that's where the similarities end.

South Tyrol - along with Tuscany and Piedmont - has probably undergone the most radical reorientation in recent times. Here, in addition to some large private wineries such as Lageder or Hofstätter, it was above all the already mentioned cooperatives - Schreckbichl, Terlan or Girlan are worth mentioning here - that were the carriers of the quality revolution, while the small wineries of the young, today apostrophized as the new savages, followed suit only later.

For the consumer, the change was first visible in the assortments, which suddenly offered almost all canteens, with the wines consistently showing a high price-quality ratio. But it was most noticeable in the cellars, where steel and new wood had long since taken hold. And - perhaps more crucially - in the vineyards, where the large-scale switch from traditional pergolas to modern wire frames has left clear traces.

Trentino, on the other hand, one of Italy's smallest wine-growing regions, where the soil is so scarce that it fetches high prices, is still lagging far behind. Although here, too, some private wineries - Foradori, Pojer e Sandri or Ferrari are worth mentioning here - have decidedly put themselves on the map of top production in recent years, overall the panorama is dominated by a handful of super wineries, making it difficult for new initiatives to take hold. - Gerardo [TS06/23]