Cantina Girlan has built up a leading position as a Pinot Noir producer – with wines of great character and remarkable elegance. In the last few years, Cantina Girlan set itself still higher goals and conducted a search for a single site capable of producing an outstanding Pinot Noir combining an international standard of quality with the authenticity of the terroir. The choice finally made was a monopole site by the name of Ganger, home of the Pinot Noir Riserva Vigna Ganger. This is a great wine, which will be available in a limited edition of only 2,186 bottles as of 1 December 2015.
Pinot Noir has been grown in South Tyrol since the beginning of the 19th century. It is generally considered one of the most elegant but also most demanding red wines. It is a challenge for even the most experienced vintner. Cantina Girlan saw an opportunity in this challenge and developed an intensive focus on the variety. Today about 15% (30 hectares) out of a total cultivated area of 215 hectares is devoted to Pinot Noir. The winery has an ambitious goal: to produce a wine that can compare with the best in the world.
“In 2008 we began the search for a site that is ideally suited to the production of Pinot Noir – a single site in which the grape variety has the right conditions for optimum development and can also reflect the specific character of the terroir, with the geology of its soils and its history,” says Gerhard Kofler, winemaker at Cantina Girlan. “Years of thorough research and countless tests with mini production volumes finally led us to the perfect site, the Ganger monopole.”
The site is located in Mazzon, at between 360 and 380 meters above sea-level, with a southwesterly exposure and a slope of 3-5%. It has a unique microclimate and deep calcareous clayey soils. Ganger is a monopole, i.e. there is just one owner, and the grapes are used exclusively for the production of Pinot Noir Vigna Ganger. The site, which has a net area of about 1.6 hectares, is planted with old Pinot Noir vines with a density of 6,400 vines per hectare and is cultivated using the Guyot system.
“The meticulous parcelling of the land, as practiced in Burgundy, offers an ideal combination of the incomparable character and specific qualities of the grape variety on the one hand and the terroir on the other. And only grapes of outstanding quality will permit the creation of an authentic and unique Pinot Noir requiring no enhancements or corrective measures,” says Kofler. “Our Pinot Noir Riserva Vigna Ganger has been treated with sensitivity and produced with the greatest respect for nature and the natural cycle of the vines. We use neither herbicides nor artificial fertilizers and produce the wine on as natural a basis as possible – whenever the vintage permits.”
“The Riserva is an exclusive wine: Of the first vintage, only 2,186 bottles were filled. They will be available as of 1 December 2015 from selected retailers and in the world’s best restaurants. Each bottle is unique: Tasting is a journey of discovery with Vigna Ganger, an adventure that begins anew with every drop,” says Oscar Lorandi, Director of Cantina Girlan. “The wine has been created to spearhead the production of red wine in South Tyrol and to rise to the Olympus of Pinot Noir worldwide. The painstaking selection of the grapes, a very low yield of just 28 hl per hectare and the long process of maturation in barriques followed by a further 18 months in the bottle have produced a great and convincing wine, a wine of character.” The Pinot Noir Riserva will be available from wine stores at a recommended retail price of about 120 euros.
© photos: Othmar Seehauser
photo above, from left: Helmut Meraner, chairman; Gerhard Kofler, winemaker; Oscar Lorandi, Director of Cantina Girlan
photo below: winemaker Gerhard Kofler visiting the Monopole site „Ganger“
