Italian Wines At Altitude

This month the Italian Food Wine and Travel crew looked at wines from the mountains also known as Alpine wines. I am always excited to drink wines that I know are grown at altitude and as climate changes continue, many more areas are looking to plant higher up, in search of freshness, straight forward flavors and purity of fruit that I find you get in wines that come from grapes grown at altitude.

The photo above is from Mamete Prevostini in Valtellina and the grapes are Nebbiolo also called Chiavennasca in this part of Lombardy. The tag line for their consorzio is Nebbiolo from the Mountains. Here as in other locations, grape vines grow on terraced surfaces that must be worked by hand in what is known as heroic viticulture.

Other parts of Northern Italy are also famous for their Alpine viticulture, Valle d’Aosta comes to mind where there are some of the highest vineyards in Europe. I just tasted a couple of exquisite wines from this region from the Cave Mont Blanc de Morgex et de la Salle and the Cave de Donnas during Vinitaly. They also make a beautiful Nebbiolo which they call Picotendro. Whites wine at altitude are always a favorite and in Valle d’Aosta, Prie Blanc reigns supreme. I tried some lovely version of this wine last week and felt quite lucky as I do not get to travel to this region often. Both wineries I mentioned from Valle d’Aosta are cooperatives. Many growers in this region have super small plots, such as 1-1.5 hectares of vines and couldn’t possibly produce the wine on the own so they sell they grapes and have shared winemaking, bottling, and other benefits of the cooperative winery system.

Alpine wines are found in the northern regions of Trentino and Alto Adige as well which are surrounded by the Dolomites and have exquisite whites and reds. Thinking of Trento Doc sparkling wines, they also say “Sparkling wine from the Mountains” to differentiate themselves from other areas that produce traditional method sparklers in Il Bel Paese. Often these sparklers have a very fine perlage and present apple-pear notes. They tend to have herbaceous notes too, reminding me of the Alpine flowers you see growing in the fields. I just tasted these wines which were new to me from the Cantina di Trento, the local cooperative in the city of Trento. I have done projects in the past for Trento Doc but was not aware of this winery nor did I visit two summers ago when I was in Trento, a lovely city with exquisite wines but also amazing architecture and a world class Science museum. The wines were a beautiful expression of what Trento Doc has to offer. This 601 line was an exciting edition to my knowledge about this area. Like many others at the Vinitaly Trade Fair, she was serving an brut nature or zero dosaggio wine. As interest in sweetness levels have come down, these Alpine wines are well position because often the grapes tend to have less sugar.

Alto Adige is perhaps the preeminent location to talk about when mentioning Alpine wines in Italy. Many think of only the white wines from Alto Adige but it was actually an area that used to grow more red wines than white. I learned this fact a few years ago and it was repeated recently in a webinar with Cantina di Bolzano. This impressive cooperative winery is a new client for Vigneto Communications so I will let others speak about the wines but I can say I tasted through some of their fabulous reds for the webinar and just tried equally exciting white wines at the trade fair. The whole region is one to visit and explore.

Speaking of exploring, the North of Italy is home to the 2026 winter olympics. I think many people will be discovering the natural beauty and great wines of the region next winter.

Thus far I have only been speaking about regions in Italy’s north, but as we know, alpine wines can be found in so many other parts of the country with its long mountain chain of the Apennines high volcanoes such as Etna in Sicily, and other regions with mountainous terrain such as Abruzzo, Molise, and Basilicata. There are so many wonderful reds and whites to seek out. I look forward to discovering more as I travel through other parts of the country in person or through my wine glass. Cin-Cin.