Wine and Science
In Auna di Sotto, the legacy of Prof. Rainer Zierock continues
In the 1990s, Rainer Zierock was something of a rock star among oenologists.
He was an agronomist, a university professor, and a winegrowing
consultant in Germany, Italy, Switzerland, and France. But Zierock
created what for him was the ideal, perfect estate winery in Alto Adige.
In a manor from the fourteenth century, he founded the Dolomytos Estate Winery in Auna di Sotto on the Renon plateau.
Along
with Margret Hubmann, in the late 1990s he redid the entire estate,
planting 150 different grape varieties and allowing himself to be guided
with everything by Greek mythology. Thus the pentagon plays a prominent
role for Zierock, his wines are produced according to the pentagram
principle, and he also developed a tasting system on the basis of this
geometric form.
In addition, panta rhei
is
regarded as the leitmotif of the Dolomytos Estate winery in Auna di
Sotto: everything is flowing, and specifically in the winery, as well,
which is set up according to the principle of gravitation. “All work
steps can be carried out using natural slopes without outside influences
– all the way to bottling,” explains Norbert Marginter,
who has continued to run the Dolomytos Estate Winery as the new
proprietor following the ideas of the professor, who passed away in
2009.
Three hectares of vineyards are tended as close to nature
as possible, the grapes are harvested with a strict selection process,
they are fermented with their own natural yeast, and they spend 10 to 14
days on the skins. After that, they mature for at least 24 months in
cylinders made from French oak. “All of our wines are blends of Italian and Greek grape varieties,” Marginter explains. So it is not only with mythology that the Greeks made their mark at the Dolomytos Estate Winery.