TRENTINO-ALTO ADIGE/SUDTIROL

This month we’re taking it to the top, visiting Italy’s northernmost alpine region and leading source of stunning Dolomite peaks, subsequent green valleys, and befuddling nomenclature. Even the above mouthful is an abbreviation, the hyphens and slashes at once repping and yadda  yadda yadda-ing centuries of tradition, turmoil, contestation and change. But it’s worth it to do the toponomastics (a real, actual word I just learned that means: the research and study of place names) when it comes to Trentino Alto-Adige; the guises it has gone through over the years are the story of the place, inscriptions of its singularity, in terms of wine and every other thing. 

Trentino-Alto Adige holds a special,  semi-autonomous status and consists of two territories:  Alto-Adige in the north, also known as Sudtirol, which corresponds to the autonomous province of Bolzano, and Trentino in the south, corresponding to the autonomous province of Trento. Though this arrangement dates back to 1948, the last local holdouts only officially accepted it in 1992. The population of Bolzano is largely German-speaking, while Trento primarily uses Italian.   

You can trace this bifurcation back to the Romans, who invaded in 15 BC and divided the area into two separate states. The two provinces then spent centuries as contested spaces  for invasions, peasant rebellions, and various  struggles between Church and Empire. They were mostly administered separately before Napoleon briefly united them, dubbing the northern part Alto Adige to efface its prior relationship with Tyrol. After his exile, the place passed into the hands of the Hapsburgs, where it was again called Tyrol  - though today’s Alto-Adige/Sudtirol was sometimes referred to as Mitteltirol, i.e. Middle Tyrol  while Südtirol, i.e. South Tyrol, indicated mostly today's Trentino, which is not called Sudtirol anymore. 

Confused? There’s more! After the post World War I dismantling of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the whole region was awarded to Italy, just in time for Mussolini to engage in a campaign of forced Italianization, outlawing references to Tyrol and renaming it Venezia Tridentina to emphasize a historical link with one of the Roman states that used to constitute it. Nazi Germany also occupied its heights for a brief period, but several post-war treaties between Austria and Italy later,  things seem as settled as plausible: a 2006 attempt to mount a referendum, in which the electorate could vote to stay with Italy, become fully independent or return to Austria, was soundly rejected.

So it’s not as ridiculous as it sounds to say that wine might be what holds everything together; viticulture in the area predates the oldest surviving monikers for it. The Raeti, the alpine tribe the Romans replaced, were already storing their wine in wooden vessels when the latter (still using leather bags and amphorae) showed up, and adopted the technique. Today, Trentino-Alto Adige boasts one of the most unique and variegated winemaking scenes anywhere: responsible for less than one tenth of Italy’s total wine production, it leads the country in wines meriting a DOC (Denominazione di Origine Controllata) designation, as  98% of the output qualifies. Though there are still a lot of individual  producers (including one of our bottlings here) 70% of the wine is made in  large communes  across a jigsaw of small vineyards with different exposures, elevations and microclimates. The grapes are a mix of international varietals like Pinot Blanc, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and  Sauvignon Blanc (many introduced by  Archduke Johann of Austria during the Habsburg reign) and indigenous varietals grown nowhere else. 

Cheers,

The PlumpJack Wine Team