For over one hundred and fifty years, wine making has been a part of the history of the Lageder family. As the son of a coach maker and wine dealer, Alois Lageder's great grandfather founded the wine cellar in Bolzano in 1855. The firm rapidly became well-known for its scrupulous ion of wines and for its emphasis on the quality of its own production and steadily grew. In 1934, the family acquired the Lswengang estate in Magre. In the following years the family found it possible to expand still further, acquiring other vineyards in prime positions in Alto Adige. Today the company is led by Alois Lageder, who was born in 1950. His innovative ideas and strategies brought new movement in the 1980s into Alto Adige's wine industry. He was before his time in insisting on "quality rather than quantity" and continues to put this point of view consistently into practice. In the management of the company he has been assisted until recently by his oldest sister Wendelgard Lageder - von Dellemann, who has passed away in June 2008. His brother-in-law Luis von Dellemann, as oenologist, is responsible for the making and supervision of the wines at Tor Lowengang. Another great passion of Alois Lageder is contemporary art. This enthusiasm finds expression in the "Project Ansitz Lšwengang". He invites artists to come to Tor Lowengang and to take it as inspiration for the creation of a work of art. Inspired by the place, for the place.

The Wines of Antinori MARCHESI ANTINORI HISTORY Twenty-six generations of the Marchesi Antinori family one of less than a handful of families to produce and market wine uninterruptedly for six centuries have produced remarkable wines since 1385. The family's unique amalgam of centuries' old Tuscan and Umbrian tradition with modern innovation has made Antinori the premier wine-producing family of Italy for over 600 years. If one could sum up Antinori's philosophy in a sentence it would be, according to Marchese Piero Antinori, president of Antinori, "Age-old roots play an important role in our philosophy, but they have not served to inhibit our innovative spirit."

The legacy of Sassicaia begins in 1944, when Mario Incisa acquired a number of Cabernet Sauvignon and Franc vine cuttings and planted them on a sloping hillside of the San Guido estate, called iglioncello after the 11th-century le at the vineyard's upper edge. This tiny, 3.75-acre vineyard stood alone until 1965, when a second Cabernet vineyard was planted with cuttings from the iglioncello parcel; the gravelly, 30-acre plot would give the wine its name: Sassicaia, "the place of many stones". This and a slightly more elevated microclimate of 20 acres, called Aianova, were planted in phases between 1965 and 1985, bringing plantings to the present extent of 90 acres in vines averaging 20 to 25 years of age. Since the late 1960s, Sassicaia has represented a standard of production that is without compromise. The grapes are hand picked, destemmed, crushed and fermentation is set off by natural yeasts in stainless steel tanks. For the first week, pumping over of the must takes place three times daily; during the second week, this is reduced to once daily until the end of the 14-day fermentation period. The wine is pressed from the skins and undergoes full malolactic fermentation. Aging takes place in 225-litre Allier oak barriques, approximately 30 percent of which are new, for 18 to 22 months depending on vintage.

Brancaia in Chianti Classico, encompassing the two estates Brancaia and Poppi, has been owned by the Swiss couple Brigitte and Bruno Widmer since 1981. Barbara and Martin Kronenberg-Widmer run the winery together which is located in the heart of the Chianti Classico area. The estate had a vertical take-off when it’s vintage 1983 won first place at a major Chianti Classico tasting. Since then, through uncompromising dedication to quality and a strong own identity, the continuous recognition of BRANCAIA was built up – spearheaded by the estates top-wine Brancaia IL BLU, being already a classic for many wine lovers all over the world. Martin Kronenberg is responsible for the management of the company and the worldwide distribution. Barbara Kronenberg-Widmer, as a learned winemaker, takes care of the production. They enjoy consulting support by the brilliant winemaker Dr. Carlo Ferrini. La Brancaia is one of Tuscany’s top wine-growing estates, winning national and international awards every year. Its wines are sold – and bought – all over the world.

Il Molino di Grace is Italy’s emerging winery, which with little fanfare has in the last couple of years pushed its way to the top echelon of Chianti wine production. It all began in 1997, Frank Grace, an American living between San Francisco and London, founder/chairman of a major relocation business, decided to buy Villa Castagnoli in Panzano, one of the most original and unique properties in Chianti. The motivation to acquire this winery was that it would eventually be a retirement base, where he could relax and indulge his passion for sculpture, art and the cultivation of young artists. Along with the villa he also acquired 26 hectares of land including two vineyards planted with local vines. He debated what to do with the grapes – sell them to other producers or create his own winery. Fortunately, Frank Grace met Gerhard Himer, former banker, who is now the estate manager. But the running of the winery would not have been achieved without the cooperation of a real true friend, Franco Bernabei, one of the best-known oenologists in Chianti. By Bernabei joining the team, the realisation of the dream became a reality.

wine producers in Gaiole in Chianti, Siena, extends over about 20 hectares (16 of Vineyard) and produces about 70.000 bottles of wine a year. The owner is James B. Sherwood, founder and shareholder of the Orient Express Group Hotels, which owns some of the world's most beautiful hotels: Hotel Cipriani in Venice, Hotel Spendido in Portofino, Villa San Michele in Florence, Hotel Caruso in Ravello and many others. The history of Capannelle wine producing dates back to 1974, when Raffaele Rossetti, a 40 year old business man in the field of laminated plastics in Rome, with experience at the Enrico Mattei's ENI, decided to purchase an old XVI century farmhouse in the heart of Chianti. Since then, the farmhouse has been radically renovated. Structural interventions and significant restoration have removed almost every trace of its peasant-like past, making the interiors a concrete expression of high quality and exclusivity. Here Capannelle regularly hosts well-known chefs, restaurateurs and lovers of its wines.

The Cantina Endrizzi was founded in San Michele all Adige in 1885 by Francesco Endrici (Endrizzi in the local dialect) when Trentino was still part of Austria-Hungary. Today, his great grandson Paolo and German wife and architect Christine are dedicated to rigorously limited production on about 17 hectares of vineyards, which spread along the hills of the Adige Valley at 200 to 400m above sea level. Sensitivity in the vineyard sets the stage for these first-class wines, where human interference is limited to accompanying and guiding the natural process. A paradise of biodiversity, chits, red-tailed waxbills, flycatchers, sparrows, short-toed treecreepers, robins, hoopoes and bats have all become useful allies in organic cultivation. About 25 nesting boxes per hectare have been located in the vineyards, and every year the birds return. By day the birds prey on unwanted insects in the vineyard and by night the bats go to work. About ten young ones hatch in every nest each spring and they attract bigger birds or prey, which then also go after mice and snakes in the vineyard. The ancient cellars are now also complemented by a state of the art winery.

Zyme derives from the Greek term for yeast, ferment. Founded in 2000 as the outgrowth of a preceding brand (vine leaf circumscribed by a pentagon) into a team of consultants, it has now become a full-fledged azienda agricola, or farming estate, with its new title signifying research, ion, and expression of experience, married to everything that nature provides us with. The Azienda Agricola Zyme, through its wines, its grappa, and its olive oil, has set itself the goal of achieving distinction because of certain choices that sometimes run counter to prevailing tendencies. Research into native varieties, expression of terroir, and natural genetic mutations are the ferment for an enthusiasm untrammelled by time or limits. This estate winery was founded in 2003, although our winemaking activity, as consultants, goes back to 1999. The motivation for founding the winery is simple, but also, paradoxically enough, complex. My own relationship with the earth has always been close, a personal past with insistent influence, always in dialogue with nature, but without adequate expression. My many experiences in various environments did nothing to lesson this bond; instead, they served to strengthen it. Thus, after years of assisting winegrowers, which brought the invaluable advantage of an intimate understanding of the local terroirs, here I am finally able to give life to a dream that for too many years existed simply on paper. Nowadays, this personal thought gets stronger with the presence of Francesco Parisi who, acquiring Flavio's shares, is becoming a determining figure in the company, overall for vineyards management and public relations. Today our operation relies on some 15 hectares; some come from my family, others are farmed in cooperation with other landowners. Vines and olive trees are the crops that cover the lands. On the other hand, the winery has reached a conclusion which is one of the most original and particular structures all around the world (it is a Sandstone Quarry of 1400). Our future goals can only demonstrate the further development and ceaseless improvement of everything we now see around us.

Fattoria Casaloste, is a vineyard located in the Chianti hills in Panzano in Chianti, municipality of Greve, near Florence, Italy. The Fattoria Casaloste stretches for nearly 19 hectares, half of which represents Chianti Classico. The present owner is Mr. Giovanni Battista d'Orsi, an agronomist and enologist. He oversees all wine making processes personally, starting from the gathering of grapes up to the refinement in French oak casks (wine bottling is carried on into the Fattoria).

The Cesconi family has farmed and lived on current property above Trento for over 100 years, nearly all of this time growing grapes. However, it was not until 1995 that they bottled with their own label. The decision was not haphazard. The four Cesconi brothers - at that time between 18 and 30 - and their father Paolo, were all prepared to pull out of the cooperative at Lavis and go their own way. Success came quickly, with several Tre Bicchieri awards from Italy's Gambero Rosso, a feature article in Decanter magazine stating Cesconi as one of the top five boutique wineries of Italy's future, and a selection as the producer of Italy's finest Pinot Grigio by Burton Anderson, in his Top Wines of Italy. Cesconi stands alone as the premier boutique winery of the Trentino. With a new acquisition of a neighboring property, the Cesconi's now work 23 acres in Pressano for white varietals (Nosiola, Pinot Grigio, Traminer Aromatico, Pinot Bianco, and chardonnay) and 13 acres some 20 miles away at Riva del Garda for red varietals (Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Syrah, and Teroldego). All four brothers and father Paolo work full time in the vineyards, and winemaking is conducted by the two younger brothers, Roberto and Lorenzo, both trained enologist who have also expanded their horizons with winemaking stints in California and Australia. The Cesconi's work towards ripeness, concentration, detail and purity in all their wines. They also avoid using enzymes or other additives and keep sulfites to a minimum. Wine, they insist, must be an expression of the terroir and the vintage. Some wines are vinified and aged entirely in stainless steel, others are vinified in wood tanks or casks, others still in barriques. Discretion is used towards the grape varietal in choosing the proper vessel for vinification and aging.