Summary
Kellerei St. Pauls (Italian: Cantina San Paolo) is one of the long-established cooperative wineries of South Tyrol (Südtirol). Its home is the village of St. Pauls, a hamlet of Eppan an der Weinstraße, right beside the striking parish church in the Überetsch hills. Around 200 grower families deliver their fruit here from roughly 185 hectares of vineyard spread across altitudes of 300 to 700 metres. The winery made its name above all with Weißburgunder (Pinot Bianco) – the Plötzner is regarded as one of the reference wines for the variety in Italy. Stylistically, St. Pauls deliberately turns away from broad opulence: what it seeks is a cool, bone-dry precision that the house itself calls 'Bergfrische', mountain freshness.
History
The cooperative was founded in 1907 by 36 growers from St. Pauls and the neighbouring hamlets of Missian, Berg and Unterrain – at a time when many small South Tyrolean holdings were joining forces to share press house, cellar and marketing. Over more than a century, that founding idea has grown into one of the better-known wineries of the Überetsch, one that has kept a markedly village-like, family feel despite its size.
An important step came in 1979 with the move into traditional bottle fermentation: since then St. Pauls has produced sparkling wine under the Praeclarus name, making it one of the pioneers of South Tyrolean Sekt. Cellar master Wolfgang Tratter shaped today's house style for around 17 years before the cellar passed to the next generation. The cooperative is now chaired by Bernhard Leimegger, with Alessandro Righi as managing director.
Location & Terroir
St. Pauls lies in the Überetsch, the hill country west of the Adige between Bolzano and Lake Kaltern. The municipality of Eppan is one of South Tyrol's most important wine-growing communes and contributes a substantial share of the province's production. What defines the site is the sheer spread of altitudes: the members' parcels run from about 300 metres on the warmer valley margins up to some 700 metres on the slopes of the Mendel massif.
That spread is the winery's real capital. The lower, warmer sites with their calcareous gravel and moraine soils supply the grapes for Vernatsch, Lagrein and Merlot, while the cooler high sites, with their marked day-night temperature swings, carry the acidity and aromatics of the whites. The interplay of Mediterranean-influenced sunshine and Alpine night-time cold is why South Tyrol produces whites that are both so aromatic and so fresh – and why St. Pauls can allocate its varieties very deliberately to individual altitude bands.
Style & Philosophy
The winery's signature is unusually clearly articulated: away from generous density and breadth, towards dry freshness. Residual sugar is deliberately kept low and many of the whites are fermented practically bone dry. The result are wines that hide nothing – varietal character, origin and acidity all stand exposed. The winery itself calls this principle 'Bergfrische'.
The cellar work follows suit and stays restrained: most whites are fermented cool in stainless steel, with wood coming into play mainly for the reserves and the reds. Among the reds, alongside internationally styled Pinot Noir and Lagrein, St. Pauls continues to back the region's light, drinkable classics – St. Magdalener and Kalterersee made from the Vernatsch grape – which many growers have abandoned in favour of heavier varieties.
Notable Sites & Wines
The range is tiered across several lines, from the accessible base through selections and reserves up to the top:
- Weißburgunder Plötzner – the best-known wine of the house: bone dry, cool and mineral
- Sanctissimus – Pinot Bianco Riserva and the peak of the white-wine pyramid
- Paul – a white cuvée of Chardonnay, Weißburgunder and Sauvignon Blanc
- Praeclarus – traditional-method sparkling wine from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, with long lees ageing in a former bunker beneath the cellar
- Sauvignon Blanc and Gewürztraminer from the higher sites
- St. Magdalener and Kalterersee as light Vernatsch reds
The Plötzner is more than a single wine: it is the winery's stylistic statement and is regularly named in the trade as a benchmark for dry Pinot Bianco from South Tyrol.
Awards
St. Pauls has for years consistently earned strong ratings in the leading Italian and German-language wine guides – among them Gambero Rosso, Bibenda, Vinum and Falstaff. The Plötzner and Sanctissimus Pinot Biancos in particular, along with the Praeclarus sparkling wines, reliably appear in the upper rating tiers. More important than individual trophies, though, is the reputation the cooperative has built: an address that, backed by around 200 small family holdings, sustains a clearly recognisable style of its own.