Blog: Kellerei Bozen | South Tyrol
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The history of Kellerei Bozen begins in 1908, when 30 winegrowers from the Gries district of Bolzano decided to found a winegrowers' cooperative. The primary founding purpose was to vinify one of the most important grape varieties in the area, the autochthonous Lagrein. A few years later, in 1930, another small cooperative was founded by 18 winegrowers in the St. Magdalena district. Its aim was to process Vernatsch grapes into the now legendary St. Magdalener wine.

The merger of these two Bolzano wine realities resulted in the Bolzano winery in 2001. With the merger of the Gries and St. Magdalena wineries, the number of members also increased to 224 today. The merger was finally followed by a spatial merger. Two locations became one. In 2015, the foundation stone was laid for the underground building in the Moritzing district. Largely uncultivated hillside land was used for this. With the new building, the entire activity of the Bolzano winery - from delivery to sales - is bundled at a single location for the first time.

In the fall of 2018, the first grape harvest was completely pressed in Moritzing. On an area of 20,000 square meters, the carefully hand-picked grapes can be processed as gently and naturally as possible. This is partly due to the new production method: Delivered at the highest point of the building, the grapes slide down to storage in the cellar. This reduces mechanical influences and ensures consistently high wine quality.

The expansion of production also makes it possible to process the individual vineyards separately. In addition, the new winery building is energy-optimized - it was built according to the latest Klima-Haus® standards. For example, the stable ground temperature of the slope into which the winery was built is used to cool the underground rooms naturally. This saves valuable resources. The architectural highlight of the building is the courtyard-side headboard with a second skin, a vine leaf made of bronze-colored, perforated aluminum sheet. As an essential component of the vine, the leaf stands for its vitality and is also symbolic of wine production in the South Tyrolean capital. - Gerardo [TS02/23]