UGA at Kellerei Kurtatsch - and why these matter

UGA at Kellerei Kurtatsch – and why these matter

Kellerei Kurtatsch has previously featured on these pages, albeit briefly. That was in a feature about Ushas, their wonderful sweet wine made from Rosenmuskateller. This time, the coverage goes deeper, focusing on the new Kellerei Kurtatsch UGAs, explaining why these matter and how to recognise them. On the way, we’ll meet five of their nine wines which are now UGAs.

But before we get to the wines it’s worth taking some time to revisit Kellerei Kurtatsch, then explain what UGAs are and why these matter in the Alto Adige DOC.

Kellerei Kurtatsch and its terroirs

Looking north_kurtatsch_©florian_andergassen_

Kurtatsch looking north ©Florian Andergassen

Kurtatsch (known in Italian as Cortaccia) is a village of 2,200 souls in the southern Alto Adige (Südtirol) region. It has some Italy’s most striking vineyard sites and so is a key venue on the Alto Adige Wine road. Meanwhile, Kellerei Kurtatsch is the most southerly cooperative wine producer in the Alto Adige region.

This cooperative, established in 1900, is also one of the oldest and smallest. There are 190 members, with 190 hectares. So even though the average family holding is one hectare, in aggregate there is a wide array of vineyards, with different soils, elevations and grape varieties. Many of those members are orchard fruit growers, with orchards in the valley bottom. Their tiny vineyards are on breathtakingly steep slopes from 220-900 metres in altitude, which is said to be the biggest single altitude span in Europe. Indeed, this enables 15 different grape varieties to thrive.

The lower elevations, which are below the village, are among the warmest in Alto Adige, where temperatures can regularly exceed 40℃ in summer. Their sand and clay soils are ideal for red varieties, including the Bordeaux classics. Meanwhile, the high-altitude sites are primarily on limestone gravel and sand, are cooler, so perfect for a range of whites.

There are also 300 days of sunshine per year and, influenced by both the Alps to the north and Lake Garda to the south, there’s a wide diurnal temperature variation, with cool katabatic winds and yet an important Mediterranean influence too.

Such a wide range of microsites naturally enable the winery to focus on premium terroir wines.

Embracing sustainability

Kellerei Kurtatsch Winery ©Oskar daRiz

A young team, led by the winery’s president Andreas Kofler and winemaker Erwin Carli, has also oriented the cooperative towards sustainable management initiatives in the vineyards and the winery.

Since 2020, the Kellerei presents a stunning post-modern architectural face to the world. This dolomitic delight on the edge of town is partially underground and gravity-fed. State of the art equipment includes heat recovery, water recycling, and EV charging.

Meanwhile, the historic winery buildings in the centre of town were also converted to strict KlimaHouse/CasaClima/Climate House standards of energy efficiency.

Sustainable packaging, including recycling and reducing bottle weights are also part of a package of carbon reduction initiatives. All bottles use natural FSC-certified cork closures.

Annual production is about 1.6 million bottles, with 30 different wines made. Presently, only 30% finds its way abroad, particularly to historic major markets in Germany and Austria. Fortunately, some of these top wines, including all those featured here, are available in the UK!

Time then, to look at UGAs and what they are designed to achieve.

UGA

The acronym UGA in Italian stands for Unità Geografiche Aggiuntive, quite the mouthful! Ironically, the German word for this is the (mercifully short) Lagen. Whatever the language, it translates as Additional Geographical Unit.

Various versions of these have been gradually introduced by some Italian wine regions over the last decade or so, and they only apply to DOC and DOCG, never to IGP. Gradually, famous Italian wine areas such as Barolo, Barbaresco, Soave and Chianti Classico Gran Selezione have introduced UGAs, though each place has taken its own approach to how their UGAs are defined.

You’ll also find them elsewhere in Italy as well, for example in Prosecco Conegliano-Valdobbiadene DOCG, (which call them Rive), Etna DOC (which call them Contrade), and Vino Nobile di Montepulciano DOCG, which call them Pievi. Doubtless more will appear in future. Wines that meet the specific UGA definitions, which are formulated by each DOC/DOCG, can now show their place names on the label. In turn, that provides a closer tie to the land that birthed the wine. Just don’t expect a UGA in one wine region to resemble that in another – it’s the local interpretation of UGA defined by its DOC/DOCG that’s important.

UGA application in the Alto Adige DOC

The Alto Adige, (Südtirol), is a region where remarkably, 96% of all wine production is classified as DOC wine, although there are no DOCGs. In this mountainous area, vineyards tend to be small and fragmented. Within the DOC there are already seven subzones¹. However, these subzones are too large to interpret the vast range of terroir differences. Furthermore, each of these subzones has a large number of grape varieties, many of which are grown throughout the region. Consequently, there has been little official recognition where specific grape varieties match their best vineyard sites at a local scale. Until now it’s been left to producers to match variety to site in the search for best quality. Hence, starting with the 2024 vintage, 86 named UGAs have been added, which are now at the top of the Alto Adige DOC quality pyramid. The existing subzones will also continue.²

The rules

Each UGA has been defined by consistent and detailed mapping based on scientific research and agronomic experience. The idea is to recognise the highest quality and communicate an explicit link to local terroir factors that are ultimately responsible. Naturally, there some new rules to ensure the UGA can represent the highest quality, but these are straightforward:

Alto Adige DOC quality pyramid with UGA/Lagen.

Each UGA has at least one grape variety associated with it, but five varieties is the maximum number permitted in any one UGA. Then, only grapes grown within the UGA boundaries can be used for the resulting wine. Those grapes also have lower permitted yields, up to 25% less in comparison to the DOC maxima.

The UGAs are not compulsory, and currently represent around 6% of total wine production. The expectation is that this will gradually increase to about 10% as the concept is embraced by more and more producers and the initiative becomes better recognised commercially. Being able to command a higher price for such wines should be a good incentive for adoption. So far, as the DOC production is dominated by high quality co-operatives such as Kurtatsch, UGA adoption is quickly becoming established.

Note though that there is no hierarchy within the UGAs – they all have the same equal status. Comparing one UGA with another is about differences in terroir, though you may of course have a preference for a wine from one UGA over another UGA. And, as most UGAs have multiple vineyard ownerships (from coops to private families and companies), there is still plenty of scope for different producers to create individual excellence and stylistic differences.

A New Symbol

UGA/Lagen symbol, Alto Adige DOC

86 new UGAs, each with an unfamiliar name, unavoidably introduces a new level of complexity that some may find daunting, at least initially. Fortunately, a new prominent symbol can easily represent the UGA category. This will eventually be shown on all relevant UGA/Lagen bottles from the Alto Adige DOC. This logo is again being gradually rolled out so expect to see more bottles showing this symbol over time. From a consumer viewpoint, the specific name might be initially unfamiliar but the logo will show that it’s a wine from the top level.

For wine lovers and producers, UGAs matter, because they offer greater transparency and greater confidence when it comes to a wine’s provenance and traceability. Kurtatsch have been able to embrace this new initiative because for them it doesn’t represent a fundamental change. Rather, it’s an official confirmation of their existing terror-driven philosophy that has been in place for many years.

So much for the theory. Let’s now see if all this translates in practice into the quality of the wines themselves!

The Kurtatsch UGA wines

Kurtatsch makes nine wines from eight UGAs. Not all are covered in this article, which features those five wines that are available in the UK at the present time. Rather than provide lengthy descriptions of each UGA, the 3D map below shows the sites in relation to one other and is largely self-explanatory.

On the left of the map, their Pinot Bianco (Penon-Hofstatt), Schiava (Sonntaler) and Merlot Riserva (Brenntal) wines are from the warmer west side of the Adige valley at Kurtatsch, where exposures are from east to south. Then, on the right of the map there are two Pinot Noir Riservas (Mazon and Glen). These two are the only areas outside Kurtatsch, being from the opposite, cooler east side, where exposure is west to south. We’ll now meet each wine, in the same order.

Kellerei Kurtatsch UGA/Lagen 3D Map

Pinot Bianco, Pennon-Hoffstatt, 2024. 14%

Penon-Hoffstatt UGA

Terroir and Technical

Penon-Hoffstat UGA covers 22 hectares above the village, and is solely for Pinot Bianco at 500-650 metres on mineral laden dolomitic limestone. Cool katabatic winds descending at night from mountain tops provide diurnal variation and breezes that helps retain acidity in the grapes. Low yield 55hl/ha. Fermentation in stainless steel, with ageing on the fine lees in large oak barrels for 9 months.