Winery Falkenstein

For 400 years the estate has been owned by the Pratzner family. In 1989 Franz and his wife Bernadette took the risky step of converting the original fruit-growing farm into a vineyard. Their courage paid off - in the meantime the Pratzner family bottles over 90,000 bottles of white wines and Pinot Noir annually, exported to Europe, Asia and overseas. In 2019 Franz Pratzner was awarded the most important Italian wine prize: The "Premio Angelo Betti", which honours all those winegrowers who have rendered outstanding services to Italian viticulture and its reputation. He received the prize for his role as a Riesling pioneer who has made this white wine, which is actually typically German, socially acceptable in Italy.

The Unterortl winery is situated on the steep slopes below Juval Castle. The owner of the winery is the extreme mountaineer Reinhold Messner, but Martin & Gisela Aurich have made it one of the best wineries in South Tyrol. And this under particularly difficult conditions: Some of the vineyards are so steep that hardly any mechanical work can be done and most of the work is still done by hand. A unique microclimate around the Juval Castle Hill, in turn, favours the development of wines with a very special character. About 30,000 bottles are produced and bottled annually on Unterortl. In addition to viticulture, Unterortl is also known for its high-quality brandies, which are distilled locally by the Aurich family.