Summary
The Kellerei Peter Zemmer in Kurtinig an der Weinstraße is a privately run family estate in a region where cooperatives set the tone. In family ownership since 1928 and today led by Peter Zemmer in the third generation, the estate farms around 55 hectares in the South Tyrolean Unterland. What makes it special is the enormous altitude range of the vineyards: they reach from the warm valley floor of the Adige Valley up to over 1,000 metres. The result is white wines with freshness, clarity and pronounced varietal typicity – first and foremost Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay and Pinot Bianco.
History
The estate's history begins in 1928, when the Zemmer family founded their own winery in Kurtinig. Then as now, Kurtinig lay at a well-connected spot in the Adige Valley, right on the wine road and on the border with Trentino – a location that favoured trade and viticulture in equal measure.
Over three generations, the estate developed from a small local producer into one of the better-known private wineries of South Tyrol. Peter Zemmer, who runs the estate in the third generation, has consistently shifted the focus towards the Pinot varieties and towards single-vineyard wines. A visible milestone came in 2019 with the first bottling of the Pinot Nero Riserva Vigna Kofl from a site at 1,030 metres of altitude in Aldein – a height at which red wine was long considered barely possible in South Tyrol.
In 2022 the estate expanded its property with a modern new building housing a wine shop and tasting room, plus an adjoining wooden-cask cellar in which the single-vineyard and Riserva wines mature.
Location & Terroir
Kurtinig lies in the South Tyrolean Unterland, the southernmost part of the growing area. Here the Adige Valley is broad and warm, the climate Mediterranean-influenced, yet always marked by cool nights thanks to the Alps and the high-altitude sites all around. The Ora, a regular afternoon wind blowing up from Lake Garda, additionally provides air movement and healthy grapes.
The decisive factor for the estate's style is the staggered altitude of the vineyards. They begin on the valley floor at around 220 metres and reach up to 1,030 metres in Aldein – a range of almost 800 vertical metres that hardly any other South Tyrolean estate covers. Every variety can therefore be planted where it finds its best balance: heat-loving varieties such as Merlot and Lagrein in the lower sites, Pinot Nero, Chardonnay and Pinot Bianco considerably higher, where the cool nights preserve acidity and aroma.
Style & Philosophy
The house style is built on clarity: varietally typical, precise wines without stylistic showmanship. The basis for this is careful work in the vineyard with reduced yields, environmentally conscious vine care and strict selection at harvest. The estate's declared aim is natural, digestible wines in which the origin remains tasteable.
In the cellar, the grapes from all sites are processed on the spot – in South Tyrol, where a very large share of the harvest goes to cooperatives, that is remarkable for a private estate of this size. The base wines of the varietal line are mostly aged in stainless steel and emphasise fruit and freshness. The Riserva and Vigna wines, by contrast, mature in wood, since 2022 in the purpose-built wooden-cask cellar, and thereby gain texture and ageing potential.
Notable Sites & Wines
- Chardonnay Riserva Vigna Crivelli – perhaps the estate's best-known wine
- Pinot Grigio Riserva Giatl – shows how much substance Pinot Grigio can have in South Tyrol
- Pinot Nero Riserva Vigna Kofl – from a site at 1,030 metres in Aldein, first bottled in 2019
- Lagrein Riserva Furggl and Merlot Riserva Punggl – the red wine selections from warmer sites
- Cortinie Bianco and Cortinie Rosso – the blend line as Vigneti delle Dolomiti IGT
Further site names in the range are Buchholz, Pinzon and Rolhüt. Added to this is the broad varietal line of the Südtirol DOC with Pinot Grigio, Pinot Bianco, Chardonnay, Gewürztraminer, Sauvignon, Müller-Thurgau, Riesling, Lagrein, Merlot, Schiava and Pinot Nero.
Awards
The wines of Peter Zemmer are regularly honoured internationally. At the Decanter World Wine Awards the estate collected a series of medals between 2017 and 2025, among others for the Chardonnay Vigna Crivelli, the Pinot Grigio Giatl, the Pinot Nero Vigna Kofl and the red Riservas Furggl and Punggl. Falstaff too consistently rates the estate's wines in the upper range; the Cortinie blends reached scores of around 90 points there. Within South Tyrol, Peter Zemmer counts as one of the most reliable private producers – above all for white wines with clear origin and a good pleasure-to-price ratio.