2015 Alto Adige DOC Merlot "Levad", Alto Adige, Italy
DOC area (also South Tyrol, ital. Alto Adige or dell'Alto Adige) for red wines, rosé wines and white wines in the Italian wine growing area South Tyrol. There are six sub-zones, which are regarded as separate DOC areas and under this name do not cover the entire product range, but only certain types of wine. These are Bozner Leiten (Italian: Colli di Bolzano), Valle Isarco, Merano hills (Meranese di Collina), St. Magdalene (Santa Maddalena), Terlano (Terlano) and Vinschgau (Valle Venosta). If the grapes come from classified vineyards, Vigna followed by the name of...
The northern area of the Italian double region Trentino-South Tyrol; the southern area is Trentino. The Italian name is Alto Adige. It corresponds geographically to the Autonomous Province of Bolzano (Ital. Bolzano). The Rhaeto-Romans planted the first vineyards here as early as 1,000 BC, making South Tyrol one of the oldest German-speaking wine-growing regions. Here the Romans learned from the Celts how to use wooden wine barrels for storage and transport. In the Middle Ages, viticulture reached its peak. The German emperors, who went to Rome for their coronation, got to know and appreciate South Tyrolean wine on their travels. A decline...
Italy is one of the oldest wine-growing countries, the beginnings go back at least to before 1,000 BC. It was at this time that the Etruscans appeared in central Italy, settling areas in the four regions of today's Abruzzo, Lazio, Tuscany and Umbria. The origins of Italian wine culture lie above all in the Greek colonisation, which brought Greek wine culture to the peninsula, beginning in the 10th century BC on the island of Sicily as well as Campania and Calabria. The Greeks brought many of their grape varieties with them and named the ideal land for...
The red grape variety comes from France. The name is probably derived from the French word for blackbird (merle), because these birds like to nibble on the very sweet berries when fully ripe. However, the name can also be an allusion to the black-blue colouring of the berries similar to that of the bird. There are more than 60 synonyms, which testify the worldwide distribution. The most important are Alicante Noir, Begney, Bigney, Bigney Rouge, Bini, Black Alicante, Blue Merlot, Bordò, Cabernet del Cleto, Crabutet, Crabutet Noir, Crabutet Noir Merlau, Hebigney, Higney, Médoc Noir, Merlau, Merlot Black, Merlot Blue, Merlot Crni,...
