Weingut Abraham

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Weingut Abraham 2021 'Vom Muschelkalk' Weissburgunder, Weinberg Dolomiten IGT	Login	—
Weingut Abraham 2021 Weissburgunder, In der Lamm, Weinberg Dolomiten IGT	Login	—	In Stock
Weingut Abraham 2020 'Upupa Rot', Weinberg Dolomiten IGT	Login	—	In Stock

While Piedmont and Tuscany have no peers for their red wines, and Friuli Venezia Giulia makes some of Italy’s best whites, no region in Italy can boast more outstanding reds and whites than Alto Adige. Indeed, from the vertiginous slopes of the northeastern Dolomites come a wealth of compelling wines of both colors. There are not only superb indigenous reds like Schiava, but also wonderful Pinot Noirs (aka Blauburgunder). And among the whites, Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio, Sauvignon Blanc and Gewürztraminer can all achieve remarkable results here. But it’s Alto Adige’s Pinot Bianco (Weißburgunder) that has few peers worldwide.

That’s the good news. The not-so-great news is that the average grower holdings here are the smallest in Italy. Most of the fruit goes to the large blended cuvées of the region’s excellent cooperatives, making individual expressions of great Alto Adige sites rare. But there’s hope. Over the past decade a new Alto Adige estate, Weingut Abraham, has been crafting some of the region’s most exciting expressions of individual terroirs. Relying on historic plots, local traditional methods, and a willingness to take risks, Martin Abraham and his wife, Marlies, are creating wines of both stunning quality and strikingly original personality.

While multiple generations of Martin’s family have tended grapes in the town of Appiano, it was Martin’s great-grandfather Johann Magagna who was the first to farm his own vines in 1901. But he, like virtually everyone else in the area, sold his fruit to the San Michele-Appiano cooperative. So, when Martin and Marlies decided to pull out of the co-op and make their own wine in 2011, it was a sharp break from tradition.

Their decision also made them pioneers in the expression of individual terroirs, since almost all the coop’s wines are crafted by marrying multiple terroirs. Martin and Marlies also brought back such nearly extinct traditional practices as organic viticulture, native yeast and whole cluster fermentation, and reductive aging on the lees.

Today, with ten vintages now under their belts, Martin and Marlies are making some of the most singularly expressive wines ever seen in the Alto Adige.