Four generations of the Pichler family live in the same small stone farmhouse home, farm the same vines their family has been tending to almost a millennium, and produce organically farmed, classic examples of Südtirol Schiava, Lagrein, and a small amount of French varieties. Located in Eppan, in the heart of the Südtirol – Italy's only Deutsche speaking region – the architecture, cuisine, and culture in this area is Austrian, and the region's reds have less in common with the powerful, sanguine, tannic reds of Tuscany or Piedmont that define Italy in the minds of many wine lovers, than the the finesse of their Northern counterparts. Starting in 1978, Karl and Josef Pichler decided to strike out and process the grapes from their 3-hectare vineyard themselves; now Johannes and Benjamin Pichler, representing the third generation, have been making wine from the farm's own vines for over 40 years. The family’s nature-oriented and sustainable winegrowing methods, combined with expert, uncompromising cellaring techniques – long aging in wooden barrels and long lees aging, sulphites kept to a minimum and all unnecessary fining or filtration avoided – result in genuine, terroir-driven wines that fully retain their character as they age. Their wines feel like a step out of time, and while extremely limited, they are reliably exceptional.