Bolzano, Italy (April 19, 2021) – The Alto Adige wine industry reports an overall satisfactory 2020 harvest: a good vintage on average for white wines, and an excellent one for red wines, particularly for Lagrein and Pinot Noir.
In 2020, a great deal of dedication and diligence were required from Alto Adige winegrowers with their work in the vineyards. “Despite some difficult weather conditions, the winegrowers were able to master the situation well with their considerable efforts along with the recommendations from advisory institutions,” says, Eduard Bernhart, Director of the Alto Adige Wine Consortium. “The harvest of healthy grapes has rarely been as dependent on a precise picking time as in 2020,” Bernhart reported.
Winegrowers and winemakers are overall satisfied with the harvest. The sugar values in 2020 are on average around 1° lower on the Klosterneuburg scale than in recent years, and the total acidity values are at the average of recent years. As a result of the lower sugar levels, the alcohol levels are also somewhat lower. “With the white wines, that is certainly not a disadvantage, as this makes them more accessible and fresh,” Bernhart added. Among the white wines, 2020 presents itself as a good vintage on average with high quality Chardonnay and Pinot Grigio, in particular.
Winemakers are very satisfied with many of the red wines from 2020, especially Pinot Noir and Lagrein. These two grapes showed extremely well at the higher elevation locations in the Bassa Atesina. The 2020 Lagrein in Bolzano is a dark color, elegant, with a lot of structure and ripe tannins, resulting in one of the best vintages for this grape. In Meran and the Adige Valley, Lagrein, Pinot Noir, and Merlot are all expected to be of excellent quality after some time in the cellar. Merlot and Cabernet had to be harvested somewhat earlier than planned because of the weather conditions, but are still of good quality across the region.
“The lowered target yields on the part of the Consortium of Alto Adige Wine helped to achieve the quality targets in 2020,” explains Bernhart. At lower elevation locations, the 2020 harvest volumes were around five percent lower than in the previous year, and at the higher elevations, around ten percent lower. The target harvest quantities which had been set by the Consortium of Alto Adige Wines a result of the Covid-19 crisis could be met nearly everywhere.
