Italy’s mountainous Alto Adige wine region stretches approximately 135km from just north of Trento in the south up to the Brenner Pass and the Austrian border in the north, with Bolzano as its capital city. It is a great lifestyle and gastronomic destination, containing many of Italy’s most famous ski resorts, top Michelin-starred restaurants, and wonderful wellness hotels. As well as its thriving wine industry, it is one of Europe’s most important apple producers, with apple orchards spread across vast swathes of its valley floor.

The climate in Alto Adige can best be described as Alpine-Mediterranean, a land where north meets south. The Alps to the north protect the region from excessive rainfall, so it is surprisingly dry, with only 500mm-600mm rainfall per annum in the Valle Isarco district in the far north. It is also very sunny, receiving around 300 days of sunshine per year; in the summer Bolzano is often one of the warmest cities in Italy! But it is also windy, cooled by cold northerly winds from the Alps overnight and in the mornings, then warmed up in the afternoons by a warm wind known as the Ora, which blows up from Lake Garda in the south. These cause significant day-night temperature swings in the summer; temperatures often reach 35C in July and August in the heat of the afternoon, but at night they rarely rise above 15C. This gives the region’s wines an extra intensity of aromas and flavours and accentuates their acidity.

In general, the further south towards Trento you go, the warmer the climate, and the further north towards the Brenner, the cooler it gets. But different altitudes and exposures create a multitude of unique microclimates. East facing vineyards are cooler than west facing, as they are shaded from the warm late afternoon sun in the summer, and the higher the vineyard, the cooler its climate. Vineyards are planted from around 300m up to above 1200m in some areas!