The distinctive characteristics of the 2025 vintage are due to a mild spring, which led to very rapid growth. Flowering also progressed rapidly at medium and higher altitudes, which was likely to affect the timing and duration of the harvest. However, before that, a sunny June and a July with well-distributed rainfall ensured that the grapes ripened under favourable conditions. “It was the cooler July in particular that encouraged the aromas to develop slowly and evenly,” Manfred Bernard, cellar master at the Wine Estate | Monastery Cellar Muri-Gries said.

Rudi Kofler, cellar master at the Cantina Terlano, believes that an optimal water supply in July played a crucial role in producing fresh, well-structured white wines with a lively acidity. “A dry spell in early August also helped to enhance concentration and flavour intensity,” Kofler wrote, “a factor that has also had a positive effect on the red wines.”

Compact ripening, difficult harvest
The favourable growing conditions in spring and summer let to increased challenges at harvest time. The fact that flowering and, consequently, ripening occurred almost simultaneously across all vineyards shortened the harvest period, whilst heavy rainfall also made the harvest more difficult. “Getting the timing right for harvesting each variety was difficult and always involved a certain amount of risk,” Hannes Baumgartner from the Strasserhof Winery - Hannes Baumgartner in Novacella commented. “It was all about taking a gamble” – though one based on a great deal of experience and expertise, he added with a smile.

The key question was whether the difficult harvest would affect the quality. “Thanks to consistent manual work in the vineyard and choosing the right harvest date, we were able to ensure excellent grape quality, which has rewarded all our hard work this year,” Manfred Bernard concluded, a view echoed by Hannes Baumgartner: “The ‘hard-working’ winegrowers certainly had the advantage.”

Precise, lively, fruity
Whatever challenges there may have been, they had no negative impact on the wines of the 2025 vintage – on the contrary. Baumgartner described the wines as “precise, salty and elegant”, whilst Bernard declared the 2025 vintage as “fruity, energetic and complex”; Kofler, meanwhile, spoke of an “exciting vintage” producing delicate wines with a lively acidity and great drinking pleasure.

Baumgartner, the white wine specialist, described them as being somewhat lighter in body with a lower alcohol content. “The 2025 vintage white wines are nonetheless fruity on the nose and very elegant on the palate, and their acidity levels are slightly higher, which is not a disadvantage for white wines in terms of their quality and ageing potential,” the winemaker from the Strasserhof Winery in Novacella said. In Terlano, Rudi Kofler, too, looked forward to “fresh, well-structured white wines with a lively acidity”.

Kofler described the 2025 vintage red wines as delicate, deeply coloured and well-structured, noting that they have excellent ageing potential. Manfred Bernard shared this view: “The red wines of the 2025 vintage are fruity and complex, underpinned by a lovely structure,” the cellar master at the Wine Estate | Monastery Cellar Muri-Gries stated. “The tannins are still young but pleasantly crisp, lending the wines a lively vibrancy.”

A great vintage for autochthonous wines
Looking at the individual varieties, the two indigenous ones – Lagrein and Schiava/Vernatsch – stand out, with a great vintage expected for them. “The Lagrein 2025 impresses with its intense colour, complexity, excellent structure and elegance,” Rudi Kofler commented with delight, whilst Manfred Bernard painted a similarly positive picture of the Vernatsch: “Its beautiful, complex fruit flavours and crisp tannins will continue to delight us for a long time to come,” the cellar master at Muri-Gries predicted.

Among the red wines, Pinot Noir is also worth mentioning; experts expect that the 2025 vintage will display the finesse, a balanced structure and an elegance that is already evident today. Structure and elegance were also the hallmarks of this vintage of the fuller-bodied red varieties, with Rudi Kofler describing it as a good to very good vintage, particularly for the Merlot.

Juicy, aromatic white wines
Experts are also expecting an exciting 2025 vintage for white wines. In the predominantly white-wine-producing Valle Isarco, one can expect an aromatic, elegant, very juicy and mineral-rich Kerner, Hannes Baumgartner suggested. “The Sylvaner is delicately fruity, reasonably full-bodied and has a wonderful structure, whilst the 2025 Riesling is aromatic, with a high level of salinity and minerality and with a crisp acidity,” the winemaker at the Strasserhof Winery stated.

Manfred Bernard also attributed a particularly pronounced salinity to the Pinot Blanc, which also boasts a “fresh and herbaceous aroma”. Speaking of the Chardonnay, Rudi Kofler described it as an “exciting vintage with great finesse”, whilst his verdict on the 2025 Sauvignons was nothing short of euphoric: “They are very precise, mineral-driven, with good texture,” Kofler said. “2025 is an absolutely outstanding year for Sauvignon Blanc.”