Italy · Alto Adige / Südtirol (Bolzano Province core)

Weingut Gottardi

Single-variety Pinot Noir estate in Mazzon, Alto Adige, farming nine hectares across seven parcels entirely devoted to Blauburgunder since 2010.

The producer

Weingut Gottardi makes one wine from one grape on one hill above Neumarkt in the southernmost reach of Alto Adige. Bruno and Alexander Gottardi bought the Mazzon estate in 1986, spent nine years building a modern cellar from scratch, and released their first vintage in 1995. They planted Pinot Noir alongside Chardonnay and Gewürztraminer, then removed the whites in stages: Chardonnay by 2006, Gewürztraminer by 2009, and from 2010 the entire nine hectares were Blauburgunder alone. Alexander died in May 2022 and his daughter Elisabeth took over as third-generation proprietor without changing the range.

The nine hectares divide among seven parcels with varying soils: sandstone, reddish and yellow siltstone, limestone, marl and dolomite. Vines are Guyot-trained on wire frames and pruned using the Simonit and Sirch gentle method, which limits wood wounds and extends vine life. Grapes are harvested by hand and moved into the cellar by gravity alone, a rule Alexander set before the first harvest because Pinot Noir loses aroma under mechanical pressure. Fermentation is in stainless steel; the wine then spends twelve months in French barriques, one quarter new, and eight further months in large wooden casks before bottling.

Known for

Südtiroler Blauburgunder Mazzon

Notable facts

The story

The Gravity Decision

Before the 1995 harvest, when the cellar was finally built and the first commercial vintage was about to begin, Alexander Gottardi made a decision about logistics that most winemakers would have deferred. Pinot Noir, he reasoned, was too fragile for a pump. The thin skins that make it difficult to grow also make it easy to damage: mechanical pressure strips aromatic compounds from the must and bruises the fruit before it reaches the tank. So the cellar was arranged around gravity from the outset, the intake and tank positions designed around a single constraint. The grapes would move downhill, the same way water does, from the delivery point to the fermentation vessel. It added complexity at harvest and has never been reversed. Every vintage since 1995, including all those under Elisabeth's direction from 2022, has moved fruit through the winery without a pump.

From the atlas

Weingut Gottardi

At A Glance

The Producer

Weingut Gottardi farms nine hectares of Pinot Noir in Mazzon, a small hamlet perched above the market town of Neumarkt in the southernmost reach of Alto Adige. The estate makes one wine. Bruno and Alexander Gottardi bought the property in 1986, planted vines, built a cellar from scratch, and waited nine years before releasing a single bottle. That patience shaped everything that followed.

Alexander ran the estate for three decades. When he died in May 2022, his daughter Elisabeth became the third-generation head, carrying forward an estate that had, by that point, pulled up its last white vines and committed entirely to Blauburgunder.

Place

Mazzon sits at the point where the Adige Valley narrows and the thermal dynamics of Alto Adige become most pronounced. Warm air rises from the south through the day; cooler Alpine air descends from the mountains at night. That daily temperature swing preserves aromatic lift and keeps acidity firm in the grapes, which is why Pinot Noir planted here retains freshness even as it ripens fully.

The DOC label reads Südtiroler Blauburgunder in German or Südtiroler Pinot Nero in Italian. Both names identify the same wine under the same appellation. Blauburgunder is the local German name for Pinot Noir, and it appears on every Gottardi bottle.

Soil And Site

The nine hectares divide among seven parcels, each with a distinct geological character. The soils recorded across those parcels include sandstone, reddish and yellow siltstone, limestone, marl and dolomite. That range of parent material within a compact footprint produces meaningfully different soil chemistry and drainage across the estate, which is one reason the parcels are farmed and vinified separately rather than blended from the start.

Story

Bruno and Alexander Gottardi acquired the Mazzon estate in 1986. For nine years they grew vines and built a modern cellar, and the first vintage went into tank in 1995. In those early years the estate planted Pinot Noir alongside Chardonnay and Gewürztraminer. The whites were not kept for sentiment. Chardonnay was pulled by 2006, Gewürztraminer by 2009, and from 2010 onward the entire nine hectares were Pinot Noir.

That narrowing was a choice made in stages over two decades. The estate did not announce a philosophy; it removed varieties until only one remained. if the vintage is difficult or the grape is complicated, there is nothing else to sell.

Alexander Gottardi died in May 2022. Elisabeth took over as third-generation proprietor of an estate her grandfather helped establish and her father spent thirty years refining. The range did not change.

Vineyards And Cellar

The Pinot Noir vines are trained on wire frames using Guyot pruning, a single-cane system that limits yield per vine and concentrates fruit into a manageable canopy. For several years the estate has used the Simonit and Sirch gentle pruning method, which reduces wood wounds and extends vine longevity. Grapes are harvested by hand and selected at the vine.

From the 1995 harvest onward, fruit has moved from vineyard to cellar by gravity alone. No pumps. Alexander Gottardi made that decision before the first commercial vintage because Pinot Noir, with its thin skins and tight bunches, loses aromatic compounds and texture under mechanical pressure. Gravity keeps the berries intact through the transition from vine to tank, and every vintage since has followed the same rule.

In the cellar, fermentation happens in temperature-controlled stainless-steel tanks. The wine then moves to French oak barriques, around one quarter new, where it spends approximately twelve months. A further eight months in large wooden casks follows before bottling, giving a total élevage of roughly twenty months from harvest.

Wines

Gottardi produces one wine: the Südtiroler Blauburgunder Mazzon, a pure Pinot Noir released under the Südtirol DOC. There is no second label, no entry-level cuvée, and no white wine. The estate does not produce a village-level or regional blend alongside its single bottling.

The 2021 vintage spent twelve months in French barriques (one quarter new) and a further eight months in large wooden casks. The oak is present but not dominant: the barrique proportion keeps the wine from being unformed, while the large-cask finishing stage softens the wood contact and allows fruit and acidity to come forward. The estate describes the wine as cool and mineral in character, with red fruit, citrus and firm tannins from the Mazzon soils.

In The Glass

The 2021 Südtiroler Blauburgunder Mazzon opens with a cool, mineral register rather than the warm, plummy character associated with Pinot Noir from warmer climates. Red fruit comes first, pitched between fresh raspberry and tart cherry, with a citrus note threading through. The mid-palate carries the grip that the mixed limestone, marl and dolomite soils of Mazzon tend to produce: tannins are firm and present without being aggressive. Acidity runs high and clean, a consequence of the diurnal temperature gap at the vineyard, and it keeps the fruit from reading as heavy. The finish is long, with a tart-raspberry pull that lingers after the oak has faded.

A Bottle To Understand It

The Südtiroler Blauburgunder Mazzon 2021 is the only bottle the estate produces, which makes the choice straightforward. What it gives in the glass is Pinot Noir shaped by altitude and a wide daily temperature range: cool fruit, firm acid, mineral grip, and tannins that have been softened by twenty months of careful élevage without being erased. The oak is integrated, not decorative. Start with the current vintage and notice how the acidity and the tart-raspberry finish feel more Alpine than they do Burgundian. That character is Mazzon.

Anecdote

Before the 1995 harvest, when the cellar was finally built and the first commercial vintage was about to begin, Alexander Gottardi made a decision about logistics that most winemakers would have set aside until they needed to scale. Pinot Noir, he reasoned, was too fragile for a pump. The thin skins that make it difficult to grow also make it easy to damage: mechanical pressure strips aroma compounds from the must and bruises the material before it ever reaches the tank. So the cellar was arranged around gravity from the outset, not retrofitted later. The grapes would move downhill, the same way water does, from the delivery point to the fermentation vessel. That meant designing intake and tank placement around a single constraint. It added complexity at harvest and has never been reversed. Every vintage since 1995, including all those under Elisabeth's direction from 2022, has moved fruit through the winery without a pump.

Final Word

Weingut Gottardi is an estate built around one grape on one hill above one town, with no alternative range and no white wine to fall back on. The nine years between the 1986 purchase and the 1995 first vintage, the staged removal of every variety that was not Pinot Noir, the gravity-only cellar from day one: these are not marketing choices. They are the shape of an estate that decided what it was making before it made anything. Elisabeth Gottardi now runs what her father and grandfather built, and the wine still carries more Alpine acidity and mineral grip than most drinkers expect from Italian Pinot Noir.

Sources

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