The history of Alto Adige Wine has deep roots
Rhaetian origins of winegrowing, roman winemaking technology, habsburg wine exporting
Wine is the expression of the total beauty of a territory. Circling around it is a world that continuously renews itself, a world filled with colors and fantasy, with unique landscapes, strong people, and inspiring expectations of existential progress and complex gourmet experiences. Wine has accompanied human history and culture in Alto Adige for more than three thousand years and has decisively shaped the development of the province.
Finds of grape seeds in the area around Bressanone demonstrate the existence of cultivated grapevines as early as around 500 BC. In the area of what is now Northern Italy, historical excavations and finds such as drinking vessels, dippers, and pruning hooks, even date back to the Etruscans. In 15 BC, modern-day Alto Adige was part of the Roman Empire. The combination of Roman winemaking techniques with the Rhaetian tradition of winegrowing soon led to the first Golden Age of winemaking. New varieties arrived in the province and new grape growing areas were planted on the slopes and scree cones which were safe from flooding.
Since that time, the Rhaetians as the original inhabitants, and then the Romans, and after them the Franks, Bavarii, and Langobards during the Migration Period of the Middle Ages all left their mark on the early development of winemaking in Alto Adige. Starting from 700 AD, monasteries and noblemen from what is now Southern Germany managed numerous wineries in the province in order to cover their need for wine. The monks perfected the handling of wine and kept the most detailed records of it. Through the course of the Middle Ages, more than forty monasteries from the areas of Bavarian and Swabia acquired various wineries in the province and had a stimulating effect on winemaking throughout an era that lasted nearly a thousand years. At the end of the Middle Ages, Tyrol found itself under the reign of the Habsburgs, and the wine from Alto Adige reached the imperial and royal courts of Europe.
Finds of grape seeds in the area around Bressanone demonstrate the existence of cultivated grapevines as early as around 500 BC. In the area of what is now Northern Italy, historical excavations and finds such as drinking vessels, dippers, and pruning hooks, even date back to the Etruscans. In 15 BC, modern-day Alto Adige was part of the Roman Empire. The combination of Roman winemaking techniques with the Rhaetian tradition of winegrowing soon led to the first Golden Age of winemaking. New varieties arrived in the province and new grape growing areas were planted on the slopes and scree cones which were safe from flooding.
Since that time, the Rhaetians as the original inhabitants, and then the Romans, and after them the Franks, Bavarii, and Langobards during the Migration Period of the Middle Ages all left their mark on the early development of winemaking in Alto Adige. Starting from 700 AD, monasteries and noblemen from what is now Southern Germany managed numerous wineries in the province in order to cover their need for wine. The monks perfected the handling of wine and kept the most detailed records of it. Through the course of the Middle Ages, more than forty monasteries from the areas of Bavarian and Swabia acquired various wineries in the province and had a stimulating effect on winemaking throughout an era that lasted nearly a thousand years. At the end of the Middle Ages, Tyrol found itself under the reign of the Habsburgs, and the wine from Alto Adige reached the imperial and royal courts of Europe.
