Blog: Merano Winery
South Tyrol

Merano and its surroundings, this is one of the most popular vacation regions in South Tyrol, it lives from the harmony of contrasts. Three hundred sunny days a year spoil the guests of the famous health resort. Palm trees and glaciers, alpine landscape and Mediterranean lightness, flair of the Belle Epoque and avant-garde architecture, elegant style and modern style. The inhabitants of the region are as contrasting as the nature: sometimes Mediterranean south, sometimes alpine north. The region around Merano is both traditional and innovative. The visitor should get involved with the contrasts of Merano and its surroundings.

Pinot Blanc, Vernatsch, Cabernet, Chardonnay, Merlot, Sauvignon - in Merano and its surroundings thrive the noble grapes that ripen in deep cellars into full-bodied wines. There are many delightful opportunities to experience Merano's great wine culture, for example at the Merano Wine Cellar. It is located in the district of Untermais and resides in a feudal manor house, a manor house in the typical Merano architectural style. The winery was founded in 1952 by 42 winegrowers from the Merano area with the aim of vinifying their grapes together and marketing them under a single name. Today the winery has 200 members who cultivate about 140 hectares of vines. They are all very small and manageable wineries, the union is as much a qualitative as an economic necessity.

With the arrival of cellar master Stefan Kapfinger in 1992, the Merano winery began a great and sustained development in quality. 'Good wines are created in the vineyards, which we can only refine in the cellar,' says Stefan Kapfinger. He is concerned about harmony with nature and near-natural cultivation, because it improves the biological balance and thus the vitality of the vines. The cellar master considers it important to find the right grape variety for each location and to get the best out of it with expert knowledge. Stefan Kapfinger is particularly concerned with the further training of his motivated winegrowers with particularly good sites. From budbreak to harvest, the winemakers meet regularly, with the cellar master modestly putting his own achievements in the cellar in the background. Stefan Kapfinger has all the knowledge to produce great wines, but he never flaunts it, which is something that likes to be played up elsewhere. Kapfinger is at home in the winding labyrinth of cellars, up and down stairs. Countless new and old barrels of all sizes can be found there, although the trend is moving away from barrique, because the customer no longer wants wines overdrawn by wood. - Gerardo [TS06/22]