St Michael Eppan Alto Adige Gewurztraminer

For over a century the St. Michael-Eppan Winery, with 320 winemaking families and 390 ha of vineyards, has been supporting the most important wine-growing municipality: Appiano on the South Tyrolean Wine Road at the doorstep of the Dolomites. The surrounding soils offer exceptional characteristics for the cultivation of unique wines. Harvest after harvest, passion has become culture. The metamorphosis of the grapes takes place in the cellar. A successful union of tradition and innovative winemaking technology.

“Respect for the grape” is the fundamental rule for the production of long-lived wines with a great personality. The grapes are vinified with rigorous attention paid to the peculiarities of each vineyard to fully enhance their distinctiveness.

The wines are then matured in steel or wooden barrels to emphasise their individual characteristics. Since the ‘80s the white and red barrique cellars have been the jewels of the winery and inside them, in small French oak barrels, matures a selection of the most valuable and highest quality wines. Hs maturation requires great delicacy and gives life to complex wines, with perfect fruit and wood symbiosis.

Today, as in the past, the traditional maturation of wines in large oak barrels plays an important role at St. Michael-Eppan Winery. For this reason, the historical cellar has been renovated with more than 50 large oak barrels over the years. One cannot but notice the four historical 150 hectolitre barrels that, with their antique carvings, depict events going back to 1907. 

Stainless steel is indispensable for modern winemaking. It is the ideal material for both fermentation and preservation tanks, guaranteeing hygiene and cleanliness. Stainless steel facilitates a pure must and improved wine transformation, emphasising the freshness and aromas of the different varieties.

The new 30,000 m³ gravitational cellar, completed in 2020, allows us to guarantee a modern and efficient processing of our grapes. We are thus able to optimise diversification and to process the different qualities individually in a very short time.

Hans Terzer has been the winemaker of St. Michael-Eppan since 1977. And since then he has always pursued his vision for the search of quality in the vineyard and in the cellar. He is considered one of the pioneers of white wine making in South Tyrol and is recognised as one of the most important figures in the South Tyrolean wine industry.