Italy · Alto Adige / Südtirol (Bolzano Province core)

Weingut Pranzegg

Small South Tyrolean estate farming four steep hectares biodynamically above Bolzano, making natural wines from old-vine Schiava, Lagrein and Gewürztraminer with spontaneous fermentation and no filtration.

The producer

Martin Gojer farms four steep hectares above the Bolzano basin in South Tyrol, the German-speaking province at the northern tip of Italy where warm air rises from the valley floor and cool nights arrive from the plateau above. The estate, Pranzegg, spreads across several parcels: Kampill, close to the city; Signat; and two higher sites on the Ritten plateau. The vines root in layers of rhyolite, morainic granite and basalt, soils that produce small yields with concentrated flavour and firm acidity. Martin and Marion Gojer run the estate with family, employees and friends, making roughly 20,000 to 25,000 bottles each year, two-thirds red and one-third white.

All the wines are fermented with indigenous yeasts, aged in used wooden barrels and concrete, and bottled unfined and unfiltered with minimal sulfur. The indigenous varieties at the heart of the range are Schiava, a pale-skinned South Tyrolean red with bright acidity and low tannin, and Lagrein, a fuller, darker variety grown almost exclusively around Bolzano. Tonsur, the estate white blend of Müller-Thurgau, Pinot Bianco, Sylvaner and Chardonnay, undergoes five days of skin maceration in concrete, giving it the body and textured grip of a wine far removed from the clean, fragrant whites most Alto Adige producers bottle from the same grapes.

Known for

Indigenous South Tyrolean varieties farmed biodynamically; skin-contact whites; unfined, unfiltered reds and whites.

Notable facts

The story

From Cooperative to Cellar

In 2009, Martin Gojer stood in a cellar that had never produced a finished wine. His grandmother had bought Pranzegg in 1935 and the farm had spent the following decades doing what mixed farms in the South Tyrolean valleys did: growing fruit, keeping animals, tending vines, selling grapes to the cooperative at whatever price the cooperative offered. Martin had taken the farm over in 1997 at around eighteen, and he had continued that arrangement without much question. But in 2009 he decided to make a wine himself. He had old vines of Schiava, Lagrein and Gewürztraminer, four steep hectares of basalt and rhyolite soil above a city basin, and a microclimate that ripened grapes reliably every autumn. The cooperative had been taking those grapes for more than a decade. The first bottle Martin made under the Pranzegg name did not go to the cooperative.

From the atlas

Weingut Pranzegg

At A Glance

Producer: Weingut Pranzegg Region: South Tyrol (Alto Adige), Italy Village: Campill, province of Bolzano Key Grapes: Schiava, Lagrein, Gewürztraminer, Müller-Thurgau, Pinot Bianco, Sylvaner Style: Natural, unfined, unfiltered; two-thirds red, one-third white Scale: 20,000 to 25,000 bottles per year

The Producer

Martin Gojer farms four steep hectares above the Bolzano basin in South Tyrol, the German-speaking province at the northern tip of Italy where the Alto Adige DOC covers most of the valley and plateau wines. His estate, Pranzegg, sits in the hamlet of Campill and spreads across several parcels: Kampill, close to the city; Signat; and two higher sites, Unter- and Oberplatten, on the Ritten plateau.

Pranzegg makes roughly 20,000 to 25,000 bottles each year, around two-thirds red and one-third white. All the wines are fermented with indigenous yeasts, aged in used wooden barrels and concrete, and left unfined and unfiltered with minimal added sulfur. Martin and Marion Gojer run the estate with family, employees and friends.

Place

The Bolzano basin is a sheltered valley where summer heat concentrates and warm air rises from the valley floor into the vineyards on the surrounding slopes. At Kampill, that warmth is direct; the vines sit close to the city and ripen in conditions that push colour and ripeness into the indigenous red varieties. The Ritten sites work differently. At higher elevation, cool air arrives from above and the nights are significantly colder, slowing ripeness and preserving the natural acidity in both red and white grapes.

Most Alto Adige wines carry the variety on the label: Schiava, Lagrein, Pinot Bianco, Gewürztraminer. The DOC permits a wide range of grapes across the province, and Pranzegg draws on most of them. The contrast between the lower city-adjacent parcels and the plateau sites above gives Martin a range of raw material that no single altitude could supply.

Soil And Site

The vineyards root in layers of rhyolite, morainic granite and basalt deposits, soils formed by glacial action and ancient volcanic activity that left mineral-rich profiles across the Bolzano slopes. These are not deep, fertile soils. Old vines on steep terrain with shallow, mineral-dominant substrate produce small yields with concentrated flavour and firm natural acidity. The steep gradient means almost all vineyard work is done by hand.

Story

Martin Gojer's grandmother bought Pranzegg in 1935. For decades the farm operated as a mixed agricultural holding: fruit, animals, vines worked together and the grapes went wherever there was a buyer. Martin took it over in 1997, aged around eighteen, and continued the arrangement that had always existed, selling the harvest to the local cooperative and leaving the winemaking to someone else.

That ran for more than a decade. Then, in 2009 by Martin's own account, he made a first wine under the Pranzegg name. The farm had never bottled a wine before. He had old vines, four steep hectares, and a Bolzano basin microclimate that the cooperative had treated as a source of bulk grapes. He began converting to organic farming and committed to biodynamic methods from 2014, roughly seventeen years after taking on the farm. The wines he built from that point, from indigenous varieties on inherited parcels, go to a very different market than the cooperative did.

Vineyards And Cellar

Biodynamic farming at Pranzegg means timing vineyard work to natural cycles and using no synthetic chemicals, which on steep parcels demands more physical labour than flat commercial vineyards accept. Manual harvesting on these slopes is not a marketing choice; the terrain leaves no alternative.

In the cellar, Martin uses indigenous yeasts rather than commercial cultures, which means fermentation starts and moves at the pace the natural yeast population sets rather than a calibrated commercial schedule. Tonsur, the estate white blend, undergoes five days of skin maceration in concrete with fifty per cent whole stems before pressing, a choice that adds texture and bitter-edged grip to the wine in place of the clean aromatic lift that early pressing would deliver. Extended lees contact after fermentation adds body and a faint savoury depth. Used wooden barrels and concrete are the only vessels, so no new oak flavour enters the wines. No fining, no filtration.

Wines

The range divides cleanly between white and red, with three named bottles confirmed across the current releases.

Tonsur is the white, a blend of Müller-Thurgau, Pinot Bianco, Sylvaner and Chardonnay from the 2024 vintage. Skin maceration gives it amber tints, grip on the palate and a textured weight that white wines made without skin contact never develop. Yellow fruit and herbal notes sit alongside spice from the stems, the body is medium-full, and the lees contact extends the finish. It is not a conventional aromatic white; it is closer in weight and feel to a light red than to the crisp, clean whites most Alto Adige producers bottle from the same grapes.

Demian is the lighter red, built around Schiava or Lagrein character. It shows red fruit, bright acidity and a clean finish; the kind of wine that works at table because nothing in it overpowers the food.

Caroline is the structured red, a 2022 blend centred on Lagrein with at least one other variety. It is aromatic, firmer in tannin than Demian, with good acidity and a drinking window that extends several years from release. Where Demian is built for immediacy, Caroline asks for time.

In The Glass

Across the range, Pranzegg wines share cellar choices that include indigenous yeasts, used wooden barrels and concrete, no fining or filtration, and minimal sulfur. Tonsur, despite being mostly white varieties, opens with herbal warmth and a faintly waxy texture before the fruit comes forward; the five days on skins pulled something out of the grape skins that simple pressing would have discarded. The acidity is present but folded into the body rather than standing apart from it. The finish is long and slightly bitter at the edge.

Demian reads immediately as South Tyrolean: pale colour, fresh red-berry fruit, high acidity, low tannin. This is what Schiava does at its most transparent; the cellar has added nothing to obscure the grape's natural character. Caroline is darker and slower to open, with dark cherry, earth and firmer tannin from the Lagrein that takes time to integrate. Both reds carry the mineral edge that rhyolite and basalt soils tend to leave in the wine.

A Bottle To Understand It

Start with Tonsur. It is a Müller-Thurgau, Pinot Bianco, Sylvaner and Chardonnay blend that has been macerated on its skins for five days in concrete with half the stems included. Tonsur remains in concrete on its fine lees until spring. Yellow fruit and herbal notes come first, then a textured mid-palate from the lees ageing, then a bitter, mineral finish. No oak, no fining, no filtration. It explains, in one bottle, what Martin Gojer is doing with the same varieties that Alto Adige producers bottle as clean, fragrant, early-drinking whites: he is pushing them in a completely different direction.

Anecdote

In 2009, Martin Gojer stood in a cellar that had never produced a finished wine. His grandmother had bought Pranzegg in 1935 and the farm had spent the following decades doing what mixed farms in the South Tyrolean valleys did: growing fruit, keeping animals, tending vines, selling grapes to the cooperative at whatever price the cooperative offered. Martin had taken the farm over in 1997 at around eighteen, and he had continued that arrangement without much question. But in 2009 he decided to make a wine himself. He had old vines of Schiava, Lagrein and Gewürztraminer, four steep hectares of basalt and rhyolite soil above a city basin, and a microclimate that ripened grapes reliably every autumn. The cooperative had been taking those grapes for more than a decade. The first bottle Martin made under the Pranzegg name did not go to the cooperative.

Final Word

Pranzegg is a small estate in an unlikely corner of South Tyrol, built by one person on inherited land that a cooperative once treated as a bulk-grape source. The wines are made without the tools most producers consider basic, and they taste like it, in the best sense. Old vines, mineral soils, indigenous yeasts, no filtration: the bottles carry the place in a way that cleaner, more controlled winemaking rarely allows.

Sources

Open Weingut Pranzegg in the interactive map →