Highest Location, Highest Enjoyment

The Arunda Winery devoted to sparkling wines is located in Meltina at 1,200 meters above sea level and is thus the highest one in all of Europe. That is not just an oddity, though, but rather part of the unique recipe for success from the founder of the winery, Josef Reiterer.

He is an oenologist but at first was on the road as a salesman of bottling equipment to the wineries of Europe. As such, he gathered a huge amount of experience, all of which flowed into the idea of setting up a mountain winery dedicated to sparkling wine. An idea which at first glance may have seemed crazy. But only at first glance. In the end, it is the natural temperature fluctuations at this elevation which make possible the calm maturation of the wine.

Added to this is the fact that Reiterer consistently produces his sparkling wine according to the méthode champenoise. “The méthode champenoise consists of carrying out the regeneration of the bottles through the addition of sugars and yeasts,” the sparkling wine expert from Meltina explains.

And because the clocks run slower up in the mountains, the sparkling wine from Arunda is given as much time as it needs. “It takes at least 24 months for the sparkling wines from Arunda to achieve the richness, elegance, and complexity that set them apart,” says Reiterer. And for some of the select cuvées, even that is much too short. They lie in the cellar for up to 70 months.

Thus a total of around 130,000 bottles are created every year of a dozen different sparkling wines made from Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc, and Pinot Noir. Or as Reiterer himself calls them, pearly pleasures for the palate.