Several years ago, when I first stood in the Kastelaz vineyard overlooking the village of Tramin in Alto Adige, what struck me most was not its reputation as one of the world’s great Gewürztraminer sites, but the sheer difficulty of cultivating vines there.

Terraced vineyards climb steeply up the hillside, with the village of Tramin below and the Alps forming a dramatic backdrop in the distance. Situated at elevations between 330 and 380 meters, the vineyard reaches gradients of up to 63 percent. Much of the site is impossible to mechanize. From pruning and canopy management to harvest, nearly every task must be performed by hand. This is heroic viticulture in the truest sense of the term. Yet it is precisely under these extreme conditions that Kastelaz has become one of the most celebrated single vineyards for Gewürztraminer anywhere in the world.