During the winter there was more snow than usual, there was an ideal amount of rain during the springtime, in March it was warm and this made flowering of the vines 14-15 days earlier than usual, in July and in August it was hot, but the vines had a good supply of water and there is ventilation in this area due to the altitude. The weather was good throughout harvest.

VARNA (Province of Bolzano)
Günther Kerschbaumer – Tenuta Köfererhof (Alto Adige Valle Isarco DOC, Gewürztraminer, Kerner, Müller Thurgau, Pinot Grigio, Riesling, Silvaner, Veltliner): “ the harvest started 10 days earlier, at the beginning it was warm, we had no problems with rain. We started on the 20t h of September with Müller Thurgau, then we continued at the end of September/beginning of October with the other varietals. We finished with Riesling on the 31st of October. We are very happy with the result, the wines are rich, full-bodied, complex, fresh, they have mineral notes, good aroma (Kerner, Riesling, Gewürztraminer), Pinot Grigio is very complex……”

SANTA MARGHERITA DI ALA (Province of Trento)
Tiziano Tommasi – Azienda La Cadalora (Vallagarina IGT): “The vegetative cycle of the vines was early starting from the last ten days of May (during which the temperature was very high as in the summer), budding was fast, at the end of May Chardonnay and Pinot Nero flowered. The vegetative cycle remained early throughout the year up to harvest. There were practically no disease problems. The harvest started early with the white varietals on the 22-23 August (we picked Pinot Nero on the 4/09 and the reds from the 10t h till the 20t h of September). The clusters ripened quickly as the temperature was high (from the beginning of August till mid September it was 30-32 degrees Celsius during the day and it was 18-20 degrees C at night). The 2009 whites are comparable to the 2006 wines, therefore they are well balanced, full, with good alcohol strength…..Ripe fruit tones, the wines are powerful. The reds took advantage of the high temperature during the summer as the grapes ripen later than the white varietals. The wines are very good and complex. It is an excellent vintage for red wines; they are aromatically typical and are very rich with intense colouring. The reds have just finished malo-lactic (04/11) so that it is easier to see their characteristics….”