Huck am Bach
Santa Maddalena
Like father, like son.
Just look at these walls! Every stone had to be brought from the quarry and then placed on top of each other to build these huge walls. Some of them are seven meters high. Sometimes I wonder how many grapes you have to harvest before such a wall pays off. Now I am 73 years old and still work in the vineyard every day. Fortunately my son Hannes does most of the work, but every pair of hands counts here – literally, because the work is done by hand; there’s not much scope for machinery. Even at night the vineyard leaves me no peace: Sometimes I get up and go out to the vines with my torch to pick the cutworms off them. The caterpillars are only active at night, and they eat the leaves and fresh buds.They can do terrible damage. A vineyard like this has many enemies, but fortunately even more friends.
“Gottfried, you’re staying here!”
Originally, my uncle ran the Huck vineyard, and I helped him. He didn’t have any children and one day, when I was thinking about doing something else, he said: “Gottfried, you’re staying here!” And that’s how it all came about, and I’ve never had a moment of regret. The terrain of the vineyard is like in a funnel; it’s protected and during the day the sun’s rays on the grapes are focussed like a magnifying glass. That makes our Santa Maddalena so special. This cuvée of Schiava and Lagrein is now famous. Some of the vines are 60 years old and more. The Cabernet also does very well here. Isn’t that right, Hannes?
We love tradition.
Hannes Plattner: Yes, that’s right! We planted the Cabernet grapes a few years ago on the slightly flatter sites, and they have developed brilliantly. Old and young vines – it’s the mixture that does it, just like me and my father: His experience and my energy are what make the business so successful. Huck am Bach, as our vineyard is called, is an old family name in Alto Adige, by the way. It was the name of one of the mayors of Bolzano in the 16th century. There’s tradition for you!
