HISTORY - Weinkellerei St. Pauls / Eppan

Wine is one of the mankind’s earliest stimulants for the pleasures of life. The growing of wine has been asserted in the villages in Eppan and all along the South-Tyrolean Wine Road since prehistoric times. Uncountable archaeological relics witness the growing of wine ever since.

In medieval times agricultural land was owned by the church and the aristocracy.

St. Pauls is one of the earliest documented parishes in South-Tyrol. The planting of wine and the possession of fertile vineyards about St. Pauls have been a desirable source of income for clergy, monasteries and secular lords.

In the 16th century winegrowing and winemaking have been organized in a more professional way. Symbol of the newly wealth was a vast building activity in a modern, renaissance-oriented, local style, the so called “Überetscher-Style”. (The word “Überetscher-Style” was coined by a famous local art-historian because its stylistic characteristics are unique and prevailing in the area of Überetsch (the winegrowing communities Eppan and Kaltern). Many medieval castles, towers and farmhouses were rebuilt into aristocratic mansions and residences.

The rebuilding of the impressive parish church in St. Pauls – called “Cathedral in the country” due to its dimensions – was the ultimate result of demonstrating wealth and power by the landed aristocracy and better-off farmers in this fertile and divinely gifted area.

Until the end of the 19th century wine was the main trading commodity of private wineries.

But soon co-operative cellars and wineries were founded to protect growers from exploitation.

1907 St. Pauls Co-operative Winery was founded by 36 growers from St. Pauls and the surrounding villages Missian, Berg and Unterrain. The first cellar Master being Josef Abraham.
1908 today’s cellar-building was constructed, being amplified and modernised throughout the decades.
Since the 1930s and especially after Word War II the numbers of members being constantly increasing and the production of wine augmenting in terms of quantity and quality.
The vineyards of our members are registered for the production of DOC wines and subject to rigorous quality and production regulations (DOC meaning controlled appellation of origin; Italian regulations introduced in 1963, further tightened up in 1992).