Why it matters
The producer
Weingut Gottardi farms nine hectares of Pinot Noir in Mazzon, a small hamlet perched above the market town of Neumarkt in the southernmost reach of Alto Adige. The estate makes one wine. Bruno and Alexander Gottardi bought the property in 1986, planted vines, built a cellar from scratch, and waited nine years before releasing a single bottle. That patience shaped everything that followed.
Alexander ran the estate for three decades. When he died in May 2022, his daughter Elisabeth became the third-generation head, carrying forward an estate that had, by that point, pulled up its last white vines and committed entirely to Blauburgunder.
Place and vineyards
Where the wines begin
Mazzon sits at the point where the Adige Valley narrows and the thermal dynamics of Alto Adige become most pronounced. Warm air rises from the south through the day; cooler Alpine air descends from the mountains at night. That daily temperature swing preserves aromatic lift and keeps acidity firm in the grapes, which is why Pinot Noir planted here retains freshness even as it ripens fully.
The DOC label reads Südtiroler Blauburgunder in German or Südtiroler Pinot Nero in Italian. Both names identify the same wine under the same appellation. Blauburgunder is the local German name for Pinot Noir, and it appears on every Gottardi bottle.
In the cellar
Vineyards and cellar
The Pinot Noir vines are trained on wire frames using Guyot pruning, a single-cane system that limits yield per vine and concentrates fruit into a manageable canopy. For several years the estate has used the Simonit and Sirch gentle pruning method, which reduces wood wounds and extends vine longevity. Grapes are harvested by hand and selected at the vine.
From the 1995 harvest onward, fruit has moved from vineyard to cellar by gravity alone. No pumps. Alexander Gottardi made that decision before the first commercial vintage because Pinot Noir, with its thin skins and tight bunches, loses aromatic compounds and texture under mechanical pressure. Gravity keeps the berries intact through the transition from vine to tank, and every vintage since has followed the same rule.
Wines to know
The range in view
Gottardi produces one wine: the Südtiroler Blauburgunder Mazzon, a pure Pinot Noir released under the Südtirol DOC. There is no second label, no entry-level cuvée, and no white wine. The estate does not produce a village-level or regional blend alongside its single bottling.
The 2021 vintage spent twelve months in French barriques (one quarter new) and a further eight months in large wooden casks. The oak is present but not dominant: the barrique proportion keeps the wine from being unformed, while the large-cask finishing stage softens the wood contact and allows fruit and acidity to come forward. The estate describes the wine as cool and mineral in character, with red fruit, citrus and firm tannins from the Mazzon soils.
A useful way in
A bottle to begin with
The Südtiroler Blauburgunder Mazzon 2021 is the only bottle the estate produces, which makes the choice straightforward. What it gives in the glass is Pinot Noir shaped by altitude and a wide daily temperature range: cool fruit, firm acid, mineral grip, and tannins that have been softened by twenty months of careful élevage without being erased. The oak is integrated, not decorative. Start with the current vintage and notice how the acidity and the tart-raspberry finish feel more Alpine than they do Burgundian. That character is Mazzon.