Peter Dipoli

Egna, Südtirol

Peter Dipoli is from a farming family in the Alto Adige, unfortunately they farmed apples, so he left to study viticulture at San Michele, in the Trento, and to start another life in wine.  He was able to buy his first vineyard in 1987, 1.2ha in Penon, near Cortaccia.  It was planted with Schiava, a variety capable of making good wine, but at the time one that was not profitable, so he began a project to find the most suitable grape variety, something  that has become his total philosophy.  He believes (quite correctly) that great wine can only be made when the correct grape is selected for the terroir.  He settled on Sauvignon Blanc, ‘a grape of character, the altitude creates similar growing conditions to the Loire’.  At that time there was no Sauvignon in the area (now it is the most widely planted variety), the wines of Didier Dageneau an influential marker to the path he has taken.