86 specified geographical websites have been acknowledged by the Italian Ministry of Agriculture as Further Geographical Items (UGAs)
Bolzano, Italy, Dec 19 2024 — Nestled in Italy’s northeastern nook, Alto Adige—one of many nation’s smallest but most modern wine-producing areas—is making an necessary step ahead with a brand new addition to its overarching Alto Adige DOC designation. The Consorzio Alto Adige Wines has introduced that, beginning with the 2024 classic, 86 properly outlined and meticulously documented winery areas have been granted particular authorized standing as Further Geographical Items (in italian “Unità Geografiche Aggiuntive” or UGA), additional elevating the area’s fame for distinctive wine high quality. This new classification allows Alto Adige growers and producers to attain even higher ranges of high quality and distinction, whereas permitting customers to savor the best expressions of their favourite wines and hint their origins again to particular vineyards.
“Our aim is to seize the distinctive character of every winery in each bottle,” stated Martin Foradori, Vice President of the Consorzio Alto Adige Wines and proprietor of the J. Hofstätter property. “Terroir” shouldn’t be only a advertising time period—it must be one thing you may actually style in every glass of wine.”
Outlined by rigorous standards, every UGA displays a super alignment of soil kind, microclimate, altitude, slope inclination, solar publicity, rainfall, and extra. Whereas forward-thinking was important to this course of, custom additionally performed a big position, as lots of the chosen winery websites maintain historic significance. A land register relationship again to the mid-18th century supplied entry to precious historic land names, testifying the area’s wealthy viticultural heritage. Moreover, inside every UGA, permissible yields have been additional diminished by 25% in comparison with DOC rules, guaranteeing optimum grape high quality and distinctive wines.
The best grape varieties for vineyards inside every UGA have additionally been fastidiously outlined. Eduard Bernhart, Director of the Consorzio Alto Adige Wines, defined: “Wines that qualify for a UGA designation have to be made solely with grapes from that particular web site. Relying on the winery’s location inside a UGA, as much as 5 varieties could also be permitted, whereas some UGAs prohibit manufacturing to only one or two varieties.”
As of the 2024 classic, the geographical designation—comparable to Gries, Mazon, or Eppan Berg, to call only a few of the 86 acknowledged UGAs—could also be listed on wine labels alongside “Alto Adige DOC.”
Producers wishing to make use of a UGA title on their label are required to incorporate a pictograph specifically designed by the Consorzio. Alto Adige Wines This can permit customers to obviously acknowledge these particular wines, because the pictograph should seem on each the back and front labels.
“Very like different famend wine areas, we imagine this initiative will set new benchmarks for distinctive and distinctive Alto Adige wines,” commented Andreas Kofler, President of the Consorzio Alto Adige Wines and of Cantina Kurtatsch. “These UGAs set up Alto Adige as a frontrunner within the highest high quality, terroir-driven winemaking.”
The creation of UGAs marks the fruits of years of analysis, collaboration, and imaginative and prescient led by the Consorzio Alto Adige Wines. Contributions from agronomists, enologists, growers, and producers helped form the brand new classification, mixing innovation with a deep respect for custom.
About The Consorzio Alto Adige Wines
The Consorzio Alto Adige Wines was shaped in 2007 to advertise and strengthen the picture of the wines from Alto Adige. One in every of Italy’s smallest wine-producing areas, Alto Adige can also be certainly one of its most multifaceted. Twenty grape varieties are cultivated on vineyards stretching from Mediterranean-influenced valleys to Alpine hillsides, tended by particular person growers, small family-wineries and cooperatives alike.
