A Visit to Cantina Girlan
Image: The team under 100 year old Vernatsch vines
Every year, the Cavinona and Terroni wine teams make the journey to Italy for Vinitaly, a much-anticipated trip where we reconnect with producers who’ve become close friends, explore exciting new vintages and come back feeling inspired. While the fair in Verona is packed with energy, tastings and meetings, the visits to the vineyards and wineries are what ground us. It’s an opportunity to see firsthand the places and people behind the bottles we love.
This year, after touching down in Verona, we loaded up the rental cars and headed north. Just under two hours later, the flat plains gave way to the dramatic foothills of the Dolomites, and we arrived in Alto Adige, one of Italy’s most breathtaking and unique wine regions. Our first stop: Cantina Girlan, a cooperative winery just 20 minutes outside Bolzano, tucked into the hillside village of Cornaiano (Girlan in German). Sales and Marketing Manager Marc Pfitscher welcomed us for a wonderful tour of the vineyards and cellar, followed by a tasting.
Image: Marc starting our tour with a glass of Pinot Bianco in the vineyard on Monte di Mezzo
Girlan: A Village Shaped by Wine
Something quite unique about Cantina Girlan is that one-third of the town’s population works directly with the winery, so it’s fair to say that most people here grow up immersed in viticulture. This deep connection to the land is rooted in a legacy dating back to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, when property laws mandated equal inheritance among all heirs. Over generations, this created a patchwork of small vineyard parcels, a landscape perfectly suited to a cooperative model built on collaboration and care. In 1923, Cantina Girlan was officially born, bringing these growers together under one shared vision.
In a cooperative winery, individual grape growers are members who pool their harvests and resources to produce wine collectively. The winery manages production, marketing, and sales, while profits are shared among members, often based on both the quantity and quality of grapes contributed.
While cooperatives in Italy can sometimes carry a reputation for prioritizing quantity over quality, Cantina Girlan defies that stereotype entirely. Here, growers are held to strict viticultural standards, and profits are distributed not just by volume, but by quality. Girlan isn’t chasing scale, it’s investing in sustainability, craftsmanship and community, with a long-term vision to ensure that wine growing remains a proud way of life for future generations.
Image: Vines at the top of Monte di Mezzo
Terroir at Its Best
At the bottom of the valley, apple orchards rule, but as you climb higher, the landscape transforms into an ideal climate for grape growing.
The vineyards around Girlan benefit from a mix of volcanic porphyry and calcareous soils, particularly on Monte di Mezzo, a hill that divides the valley. This unique geology, combined with cooler mountain air, results in wines with lower pH, high natural acidity and deep phenolic complexity. These are clean, focused and expressive wines that beautifully reflect their alpine origins.
Image: Signs celebrating 100 years of Cantina Girlan, vines starting to bloom.
Innovation Rooted in Tradition
Girlan is impressively modern. A highlight of our visit was their state-of-the-art harvest pillar, where grapes are delivered and instantly analyzed for sugar and pH, allowing the winemaking team to make precise, data-informed decisions at the very start of the process.
In the cellar, all white wines undergo whole-cluster fermentation without maceration, a technique that emphasizes purity, verticality, and freshness. By avoiding run-off and maximizing grape integrity, Girlan creates sharp, mineral-driven whites with a clear sense of place.
Even traditional practices are preserved thoughtfully. The native Vernatsch (Schiava) grape is still grown on pergola-trained vines, a system that offers higher yields but is also more vulnerable to pests like the suzuki fly. Girlan remains committed to cultivating this delicate variety, honouring the region’s heritage even as they look ahead.
Images: A peek at the cellar
Tasting Through Vintages
After walking through the vineyards and cellar, we had the opportunity to sit down and taste through the new vintages of all the wines we currently import. It's always exciting to revisit familiar labels, but tasting them in their place of origin, steps from where the grapes were grown, adds a whole new dimension.
One of the highlights of the tasting was the 2022 Gschleier, a 100% Vernatsch (Schiava) from 100-year-old vines. This wine is made in a Pinot Noir style, with a long maceration. It was full-bodied, with strong tannins, notes of red currant and spice. It was earthy, unexpected and showcased the ageing potential of Vernatsch. While not yet part of our current portfolio, it's the kind of discovery that keeps us inspired and always looking ahead at what we might bring in next.
Image: The tasting lineup
Girlan Wines at Cavinona
We’re proud to bring a selection of Cantina Girlan wines to our customers in Ontario. These are wines of character. Authentic, expressive and shaped by a truly singular terroir.
Here’s what you can find on our website, in the bottle shops and at select Terroni restaurants in Toronto:
Girlan Pinot Bianco Classico Alto Adige DOC
Crisp and mineral with clean orchard fruit flavours. A fantastic example of Alto Adige’s purity in white winemaking, great with seafood or light pasta dishes.
Girlan Gewürztraminer Alto Adige DOC
Exotic and expressive, with lychee, rose petals and spice. A perfect pairing for Asian cuisine, curries or soft cheeses.
Girlan 448 S.L.M Vernatsch Schiava Dolomiti IGT
Light, aromatic and easy-drinking. A charming red with fresh berry notes and a touch of spice, ideal for warm weather or a casual charcuterie board.
Girlan Pinot Noir Patricia Alto Adige DOC
Elegant and finely textured. This alpine Pinot Noir delivers wild strawberry, earthy undertones, and a refined finish. Pair with roast chicken or mushroom risotto.
Deep and structured. A bold red native to the region, ideal with grilled meats or aged cheeses.
A final thought
Wineries like Cantina Girlan remind us why we do what we do. These are not just wines to be consumed. They are stories, places and people captured in the bottle.
