Wine Wisdom: Getting to know Alto Adige’s cool climate reds

If you head to cool climates with a red-avoidant personality trait, you’re not the only one. A feverish demand over the past 30-40 years for only the deepest, velvetiest, jammiest reds has made lighter-bodied and higher acid red wines seem pallid in comparison. It’s all too easy to switch to a white or a sparkling wine when you’re in a region that’s famed for the style, or avoid the smaller regions altogether in favour of Piedmonte’s Nebbiolo or Lombardy’s Barbera. But there are beautiful reds in colder, less famous climates for those with the eyes to see. Locals in the Alpine wine region of Alto Adige have been making and enjoying their unique red styles for hundreds of years, and even if you take rosé out of the equation entirely, they have a strong heritage of red winemaking.

Using grapes like Lagrein and Trollinger, and interlopers like Pinot Noir and even Gamay, Alto Adige winemakers produce light but intense wines that are just as arresting as their white counterparts. There are fresh, young red wines that pop and burst with cherry and strawberry flavours, and there are refined and dignified reds aged in wood, spicy with pepper and nutmeg. Unlike the stately, long-aged Barbaresco and Barolo, these wines are made to be enjoyed—ideally with food. You’re in Italy, after all.

What makes Alto Adige’s red wines so unique is the bizarre microclimate. You can spend all winter in below freezing temperatures, but then as summer approaches, the streets start to sizzle. In the centre of Bolzano, the capital of Alto Adige, midday can reach up to 40 degrees celsius in July and August. These few months of searing heat are what give the grapes their power and intensity. When you drink a South Tyrolean red wine, you’re tasting the flawless, fierce sunshine of summer just passed.