Cantina Colterenzio

Cantina Colterenzio’s History and Terroir

The social wineries are the essential foundation of the wine-growing life of South Tyrol , the heart and soul of a region which, until recently, had occupied a completely marginal position in the global panorama of Italian wine. For objective necessity, in an area where the land ownership is divided into a myriad of small estates and the company bottling, by the individual growers would be economically unbearable, the wineries play an essential role, first in the transformation of the grapes into wine in its own well-equipped cellars and then in the sale and marketing of bottled wines.

Philosophy of Cantina Colterenzio

Stages that the owner of a few hectares of vineyard could not reasonably support. In the past, before the 1980s, to be precise, the cellars concentrated on the production of simple, easy-to-drink wines, mainly based on Schiava , and exported to the markets of Austria and southern Germany , which suffered from the shortage of local red wines. . But a revolution was coming which was led by the Colterenzio Winery , directed by Luis Raifer , firmly convinced that the region could do much more and that all that was needed was a higher ambition and a bigger commitment. Theories that he soon put into practice with the help of an intelligent and capable winemaker, Donato Lanati of the University of Turin.

Cantina Colterenzio’s Wines

Raifer himself , a professional agronomist, supervised the work in the vineyard, and few of the associated growers escaped his sharp and rigorous eye. The result was a series of extraordinary selections that established new quality criteria and gave new credibility to South Tyrol: Cabernet Sauvignon Lafoa , Chardonnay Formigar , Lagrein Sigis Mundus , Merlot-Cabernet Sauvignon Cornelius , Pinot Noir Riserva Villa Nigra , and Sauvignon Lafòa.