Tramin (Alto Adige, Italy)

The winery TRAMIN, in the village TRAMIN, is the home of the great wine GewürzTRAMINer!

The fresh, pure and mineral wines of this winery are unique! “Alpine terroir” captured in a bottle.

Excellent value, fresh and drinkable Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Noir, and Gewürztraminer!

Terroir

Alto Adige (or “Süd Tirol” in German) is a dynamic winegrowing region at the northern end of Italy, close to Austria, that combines a brisk alpine climate, mountain viticulture and complex geology with the brilliance of Mediterranean sunshine.

Here, in Cantina Tramin, the vineyards are cared for by many hands of the 300 small growers whose heritage it is to coax the best out of their grapes, culminating in wines which reflect the uniqueness of the area.

Wines from Tramin are characterised by intense varietal aromas and flavours, freshness, and plenty of body, balanced by tangy acidity.

As in all the world’s fine winegrowing regions, the most impressive wines are grown in soils with prominent level of calcium carbonate, typical of the western side of the Adige Valley from Söll overlooking Tramin southwards, where most of the vineyards supplying the Tramin Cellars are located.

Cantina (= Winery)

Cantina Tramin is one of the oldest growers’ cooperative winery in Alto Adige, with a profile based on the excellence of its aromatic white wines: wines which embody the fragrance and elegance typical of the best produced in the region. Over the past 15 years the winery has made enormous strides in optimising quality, both by improving cultivation in its members’ vineyards, and in winemaking techniques. It is now recognized as one of Italy’s top white wine producers, as evidenced by its numerous national and international awards.

The architect Werner Tscholl designed the new headquarters and winery of Cantina Tramin on the western side of the Adige Valley, a building constructed in perfect harmony with the surrounding countryside.

Winemaking Philosophy

Willi Stürz is the winemaker and technical manager of the Tramin Cellars. His desire to express the full potential of the land around Tramin to yield superlative wines through respect for the soil and by the sparing use of technology, revealed in his winemaking philosophy.

“Our approach to innovations is conditioned by the desire to preserve the primary aromas in the grapes. Our grapes are supplied by member-growers from small, family-owned farms who for the most part cultivate less than one hectare of vineyard each. Consequently, the relationship between grower and land is still intimate. Growers work rows of vines with dedication and passion, vines which have often been planted by their grandfathers. Even though our company is large with grapes supplied from some 260 hectares of vineyards, the small-scale structure of farms enables us to act decisively on each individual row of vines.”

“When the grapes are delivered to the winery we avoid damaging them by furthering them on conveyor belts into the press. The juice is extracted at low pressure and in all phases of the fermentation process we avoid the loss of aromas by eschewing the use of pumps and by controlling the fermentation temperature to prevent their evaporation. These methods respect the raw material and further the physical processes.”

Tramin, birthplace of Gewürztraminer

Traminer is one of the most ancient cultivars of the European vitis vinifera vine (often cited as Pliny’s Nomentana) and appears in the pedigree on the maternal side of numerous younger varieties, including Pinot Noir and Riesling.

Traminer wine was mentioned in a dispatch by Tyrol’s famous bard, knight and diplomat Oswald von Wolkenstein in 1,414 AD during a council in southern Germany when, far from home and dissatisfied with the local offerings, he longed for a drop of ‘Traminer’. Today the name stands for the world’s favourite aromatic white wine. Gewürztraminer is one of the most easily-recognisable wines, even for novice tasters. The original vine was called Traminer, the suffix –er being the

German language possessive form, while the prefix Gewürz denotes spice, though in this context it means perfumed. It seldom produces satisfactory results in hot climates and if the grapes are harvested early to preserve acidity the wine generally lacks the scented and tropical fruit characteristics which we look for in Gewürztraminer. However, in cool regions where the ripening season is long-drawn-out the wines can combine floral and exotic aromas, spice, body and weight but with a firm backbone of acidity making them extremely elegant.

Consequently Traminer / Gewürztraminer is a distinctively cool climate vine. At Tramin the stark contrast between day and night time temperatures in summer and early autumn extends the ripening period well into September and later in higher vineyards, for example around the hamlet of Söll at an elevation of 1,320 feet. A long, gradual ripening season is a pre-requisite to produce full-flavoured, aromatic, concentrated white wines whose weight is underpinned by mouth-watering acidity. Around Söll the soils comprise a mixture of gravel eroded from the mountain and clay with a high calcium carbonate content all overlaying a bedrock of volcanic porphyry.

Wines

At WPS, we currently hold 11 different wines at stock, from 2017 - 2020 vintages.

We strongly recommend to check out Tramins’ well-prices Sauvignon Blanc, comparable to NZ equivalents, but with more minerality and freshness to our taste.

Awards Aplenty

Tramin winery has been showered with awards – especially for their Gewürztraminer, one statement from Jan D’Agata summarises why:

‘The only Gewürztraminers that can keep up with those from Alsace are the ones from the Alto Adige, and out of these, Nussbaumer is the best.’

Jan D’Agata, Decanter, January 2015

In 2007 Gambero Rosso recognised the Nussbaumer Gewürztraminer as one of the 50 wines which have fundamentally changed the Italian wine scene. With a total of 20 “Three Glasses” the Gambero Rosso guide declared 2010 the Cantina Tramin as a two-stars-winery.

Prestigious awards have not been limited to Italian magazines and wine guides. A joyful testimonial of Cantina Tramin continued quality aims confirms the Wine Advocate (Robert Parker) in 2012, with exceptional 96 points for Gewürztraminer Nussbaumer, 94 points for Gewürztraminer Terminum und three more wines with 90+ points.