Cantina Tramin

When Termeno’s name (Tramin in German) is written in full – Termeno on the Wine Route / Tramin an der Weinstrasse – it explains everything about the main activity of its inhabitants. The town in fact lies roughly halfway between the Bolzano, the main city in the province, and the borders with the neighboring province of Trento. Most of this area is planted with vineyards and the Cantina Tramin, one of the most important cooperatives in South Tyrol, is not the only winery to work here, for there are several other large organizations and private companies that exploit the locally grown grapes, all of an excellent quality for fermentation and aging.

The winery was founded by the local parish priest, Christian Schrott, in 1898. The cooperative now boasts 300 member-growers with 260 hectares of vineyards in Termeno and the neighbouring towns of Auer, Neumarkt and Montagna. The Pinot Noir and Lagrein varieties of grape, in particular, come mainly from the plots at Neumarkt and Montagna where the best of these excellent grapes are grown. The area around Termeno is distinguished for its production of white wines and especially the aromatic and spicy Gewürztraminer (Gewürz) wines. These are rare and expressive wines that boast a great aging potential; these qualities become further refined and defined over the years, so that their strongly perfumed “explosive” features are transformed into an olfactory bouquet of rare elegance with distinct mineral properties.

This truly ancient variety of grape, the basis of many great white wines, has become a vocation for the Cantina Tramin, which is known as the “House of the Gewürztraminer”. It is therefore hardly surprising that its selections are second to none. The Cantina Tramin is a model form of business ,whose organizational support, marketing and sales really favours the wine producing families and thus helps them to maintain a positive relationship with their land, situated as it is in an alpine area that requires commitment and hard work. If they had to carry all this out in their own, they would find it impossible to produce economically sustainable results.

The winery’s strong point is its long cooperative experience, combined with an intelligent and loving management of the territory. Sharing plays an important part in this wine project, which directly involves the work of these families, who, for generations, have been linked to their farms, their vineyards, cultivated everywhere, and their great respect and close contact with Willi Stürz, the winemaker, who was born and brought up here and knows all there is to know about every single plot, just as he knows everything about all the people that farm them. He has managed to establish a human as well as professional relationship with each one of them and this has ensured continuous, virtuous communications between the vineyard and the winery. The Cantina Tramin is thus able to offer a wide range of highly characteristic wines that fully express the elegance and aromas of this truly unique territory, while also representing all of its aspects. The wines are capable of transmitting all the experience of the local farming culture and the perfect balance between man and nature that it has been possible to create in this area.

Nussbaumer