Schreckbichl Winery
When, in 1960, 26 winegrowers from Schreckbichl near Eppan decided to found a co-operative, they were regarded as rebels; but when, under the leadership of Luis Raifer, they began to focus strictly on quality viticulture from the 1980s onwards, they became pioneers.
Anyone travelling through South Tyrol today would find it hard to imagine that this region was desperately poor in the 1960s. The winegrowers were struggling and were largely dependent on wine merchants who paid only meagre prices per hectolitre. Moreover, winegrowing was geared towards quantity rather than quality, with the result that South Tyrol eventually became synonymous with the cheapest, residual-sweet, bulk Vernatsch wine, known, for example, under the name ‘Kalterer See Auslese’.