Lageder, Hofstätter and others

The Lageder estate

I learnt very little about wine in the course of the first half hour of my visit to Alois Lageder. On the other hand, I did learn a lot about heating and refrigeration technology, about the construction biology and in particular about art. His new cellar and office buildings, built in 1996 right next door to the Löwengang residence complex, were built completely in accordance with organic principles and with due consideration for construction biology. Energy supply is CO² neutral, using solar collectors, solar cells and heat exchange pumps. In the inner courtyard of the administration block you will find an object of art consisting of a glass box around three metres high which is filled with layers of soil and natural vegetation from the Römigberg, Löwengang and Lindenburg vineyard sites. Spread around the inner and outer areas of the winery are a total of 53 star maps carved in black granite, symbolising the influence of the stars and moon on the growth of the vines and on the procedures in the cellar. And in the barrique maturation cellar, the wines mature to the musical influence of the „Lullaby for barriques and strings”, a sound installation devised by artist Mario Airò from Milan. All these works of art are meant to express the balance between nature and technology, which Alois Lageder hopes to achieve with his redevelopment of the Löwengang residence.

The implementation of biodynamic methods in the vineyards is the logical extension of this philosophy. „We must learn (once more) to think in terms of a larger, more comprehensive framework. If I do not pay attention to a vital, healthy soil free of harmful substances, the vines will not have a basis for harmonious development. They will be more susceptible to disease, they will not ripen harmoniously, and they will generally be essentially weak. If humans are forced to work in unhealthy, boring buildings, they will not feel well, their work and their work product will deteriorate accordingly. These are actually very simple principles, but it takes a bit of courage to implement these ideas. However, it is clear that we cannot simply continue with our old methods, we are in a cul-de-sac. Just look at the example of climate change.” There is little doubt Alois Lageder was correct on this count. Every day of my visit to Alto Adige provided fresh evidence of climate change. It was late August, yet everywhere producers were either about to start harvesting, or were already well into their harvest programme. There is considerable danger in such conditions of producing wines that are not harmonious or in balance, as the sugar production does not coincide with physiological ripeness. In other words you are faced with a choice of either having a normal alcohol level, with little real substance, or you wait for a ripe flavour and have to live with high alcohol levels. The harvest was also in full swing at this stage at the Alois Lageder estate. He may be concerned about climate change, but he is certainly not concerned about the harmonious condition of his grapes in this year. „We are bringing in fully ripe grapes at normal sugar levels, and in some cases even at slightly lower sugar levels.” This phenomenon was also mentioned by many other producers using biodynamic methods, not only in Alto Adige, and virtually all of them ascribe this to the biodynamic methods used.

Art is omnipresent at the Lageder estate: the barrique cellar

However, Martin Foradori of the Hofstätter estate is of a different opinion. He currently implements organic practices in five hectares of his vineyards, and he also started applying some biodynamic methods selectively two years ago.. „We currently achieve physiological ripeness everywhere, including in those vineyards that are not worked with biodynamic methods.” So that is not the motivation at the Hofstätter estate for implementing biodynamic methods. But Martin Foradori does have other good reasons for implementing alternative methods. These include the familiar problems related to the decreasing biodiversity associated with conventional viticultural methods. He found that the use of anti-botrytis chemicals brought on sour rot in his vineyards, and the use of herbicides encouraged the growth of moss rather than grass. "One does not really have to comment on that in detail. Moss is a pioneering plant, and wherever that grows, no other plants will grow for a very long time, certainly not the natural soil fauna either." For this reason, herbicides are no longer used in the conventionally-treated Hofstätter vineyards either, and old-fashioned soil work is again implemented in all the vineyards.

The Crozzol estate owned by Hofstätter

The officially certified vineyard parcels of the Crozzol estate have been worked along organic guidelines since 1978, at the time under the stewardship of the previous owner, Hilde Grübl Sessner. She then had the wines bottled by the Hofstätter winery. The vineyards have been worked by the Hofstätter team since 1995, and they were converted from bio-organic to bio-dynamic principles two years ago. The conversion of previously conventionally worked vineyard parcels to biodynamics  „was not that much of a problem in our case because we had already gained several years of experience on the Crozzol estate. The vines responded very positively. Bear in mind that two years are a short time in this regard, and we still have to wait and see how this develops.” However, the Hofstätter estate has so far made such good experiences with biodynamic methods that they are already planning to expand the vineyards worked in this manner again next year. Martin Foradori considers the compost mixtures as well as the soil treatment to be particularly important, while other products such as singing nettle solutions and tea are currently not really part of his focus.

Hofstätter currently lists one certified organic wine, the Pinot Noir/Spätburgunder from the Crozzol estate in Buchholz close to Salurn. In addition, Pinot Noir and Gewürztraminer are grown on the other converted vineyard parcels, these are vinified separately and monitored in the cellar, but are then blended into other wines. Martin Foradori states that currently he is more interested in the reactions seen in the vineyard than those in the bottle. If the grapes can be brought to the cellar in optimum condition, the work required in the cellar is reduced to a minimum, and the future wine will of necessity be good.”

Arunda: Organic sparkling wine restricted to organic specialists?

Yet another well-known name in Alto Adige wine circles is  Josef Reiterer - at least for those who love sparkling wine. In his sparkling wine cellar in Mölten close to Terlano he produces some of the best bottle-fermented sparkling wines in Italy under the Arunda-Vivaldi name. All of these are elegant, complex and very refreshing wines, and unusually all critics and many consumers are totally unanimous in agreeing on the high quality of these wines. The range produced by Josef Reiterer also includes a sparkling wine made from bio-organically grown Pinot Blanc and Chardonnay grapes sourced from the Hof Gandberg vineyards close to Eppan. According to Josef Reiterer this wine has the same high level of quality as the two basic wines made from conventionally grown grapes.

Sparkling wine specialist: Josef Reiterer

The second fermentation in the bottle on the yeast lasts a minimum of 36 months. That is something you can only do if your base wines are really good. However, Josef Reiterer does have a problem: He does not sell a lot of his organic spumante, since „those organic types don’t seem to celebrate or have parties”. If they do party, it seems they are not doing it with high-quality sparkling wine. My recommendation to Josef Reiterer would be to let those organic types continue to hold their parties without Arunda sparkling wine, and to rather ensure that the real connoisseurs get to know about his organic sparkling wine. Although I attend practically all wine presentations involving Alto Adige, and always taste the Arunda sparkling wines with great pleasure (you won’t see me spitting any of this stuff) I have never yet seen the organic sparkling wine on display at these events. You won’t even find mention of it if you go to the Arunda homepage on the Internet. I am convinced that were it not so well hidden it would find a ready following, it certainly has the inherent quality to do so.

Part 4 will be online 15th of March.

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