Zooming along the Val d’Adige / Etschtal. and Vallagarina: Verona to Bolzano.

First a bit of geography. The map doesn't show Verona, by far the most important in the area because it's in Veneto just below where our map peters out to the south. Verona is in Amarone, Bardolino and Valpolicella land with quite different grape varieties.

Entering Trentino-Alto Adige by train, winegrowing towns visible from your window or actual stops include (south to north)

Borghetto Sull'Adige
Avio
Ala
Mori
Rovereto
Calliano
Trento
Lavis
Cortaccio/Kurtatsch
Tramin
Caldaro/Kaltern

You might also be able to see from the map that varieties change with the geography;

Terradeiforti: Casetta, Enantio, Pinot Grigio

Trentino Marzemino; Marzemino

Trento; Chardonnay, Pinot Bianco, Pinot Meunier, Pinot Nero

Caldaro; Schiava Grossa, Schiava Gentile, Schiava Grigia

Valdadige; Chardonnay, Pinot Bianco, Pinot Grigio, Schiava

Also Adige; Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Gewurztraminer, Kerner, Lagrein, Malvasia, Merlot, Moscato Giallo, Moscato Rosa, Muller-Thurgau, Pinot Bianco, Pinot Grigio, Pinot Nero, Riesling Italico, Riesling Renano, Sylvaner, Schiava Grossa, Schiava Gentile, Schiava Grigia, Sylvaner.

Prominent Verona Enoteca Signorvino

Vineyards begin almost immediately on leaving Verona

Casetta or Lambrusco Foja Tonda is another variety brought back from decline by a single producer, Albino Armani. It now accounts for a healthy area in the Terre dei Forti region which lies between Bardolino and Negrar and runs parallel to Lake Garda.

The famous Tenuta San Leonardo can be seen from the train just after Borghetto sull'Adige, just inside Trentino. Jancis Robinson considers San Leonardo to make the best Bordeaux blend wine outside Bordeaux.

Ala and nearby Avio are famous for Enantio, aka Lambrusco a foglia frastagliata.

Nearby in Avio, they started a National Barrel-rolling race in 2007. According to the organizers:

'The competition consists of rolling a 500-litre barrel along a path between a minimum of 600 meters and a maximum of 1500 meters in length, which must cross the streets of the hosting wine city - in particular from Avio to Sabbionara d'Avio There are three other specialties: grape crushing, cask filling and the female slalom.'

Rovereto for Marzemino

In his masterpiece 'Italy for the Gourmet Traveller' Fred Plotkin writes; 'Rovereto is yet another of the many special towns that are completely ignored by modern travelers, both Italian and from abroad....Here is the site of the first concert Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart gave in Italy, on Christmas day, 1769, when he was thirteen.

....In his masterpiece Don Giovanni, which takes place in Seville, the title character drinks Marzemino, the local wine of Rovereto, which probably was unknown in Spain. I suspect that Mozart became acquointed with Marzemino during his stay in Rovereto and asked Lorenzo da Ponte, his librettist, to include the wine in his text.'

The sign says Margreid-Kurtatsch.

Apart from international varieties, Kurtatsch/Cortaccio is the place for Lagrein, Schiava and the rare Moscato Rosa. White wines include the seldom seen Freiburg hybrid Bronner.

Double Guyot trained vines everywhere.

The famous Tramin where Traminer is supposed to have come from, hence also Gewurztraminer.

Netting is much in evidence.

Mountains allow for terracing.

Plotkin also has written beutifully about the 'Weinstrasse' we had glimpsed from the train:

'The Wine Road south of Bozen is a beautiful thing to behold, with its perfect vineyards, charming villages, sunny valleys, and even an unspoiled lake (Kalternsee/Lago di Caldaro) right in the middle.... Some of the towns on or near the wine road are Girlan/Cornaiano, Eppan/Appiano, Kaltern/Caldaro, Tramin/Termeno, Kurtatsch/Cortaccia, Margreid/Magre. Salurn/Salorno, Neumarkt/Egna, Montan/Montagna and Auer/Ora.'

Stazione Centrale/Hauptbagnhof Bolzano/Bozen

Arriving in Bolzano one is impressed by the surrounding mountains.

Piazza Walter von der Vogelweide.

The city has a beautiful 'Centro storico' outside of which are handsome modern buildings which seem to have been built relatively recently.

Bolzano street scene.

Although a Monday, the streets and markets were thronged. Goethe no less writes approvingly of the Bozener Messe in his diary on his Italian journey.

Restaurant Voegele

For lunch we made for Voegele, Via Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Nr. 3.

Goethestube, Restaurant Voegele

No record remains of any visit Goethe may have made to the Roter Adler (now known as Vogele) but the tradition is that he must have done so otherwise whay it the room called the Goethestube?

Upstairs, Voegele

There has been an inn on the site since the 13th century.

Beetroot risotto

We ate as much as we could of this rather large portion of delicious Beetroot risotto with a kind of whizzed-up ball of Gorgonzola encrusted with breadcrumbs in the middle

Entenkeule with Rotkohl, apple and Roesti

Duck's leg with red cabbage, potato pancakes and apple sauce was equally tasty.

Obeying our rule of not drinking at lunchtime we could only dream of what wines might best accompany such a meal. Certainly some of the ones we had passed on our trip up the Vallagarina.

Enoteca/Enotek 1001 Weine/Vini

We did have a look around a nearby wine shop. The owner couldn't believe we had heard of Lagrein in the UK!