Aims

The association “Free Winegrowers South Tyrol” (“Freie Weinbauern Südtirol”) was founded in 1999 and opened its own headquarters and office at Siebeneich near Terlan, South Tyrol in 2003.
The purpose is to represent the interests of wine producers in South Tyrol who make and market directly the wines produced exclusively from their own estates.

At present we advise our member producers on viticulture – especially in the context of producing top quality wines – and on marketing. In addition we represent our members’ interests in their relationships with official South Tyrol wine committees and bodies. Furthermore we are intent on cultivating South Tyrol’s wine culture and fostering the image of the region’s wines.

Our role and responsibilities towards our member growers include:
- General advice
- Keeping their registers of grapes crushed in the winery
- Assistance in keeping and supervising other obligatory registers
- Reporting production quantities
- Producing inventory declarations
- Producing circulars on legal matters, new regulations and amendments, specialist literature, organising presentations, educational excursions, distributing internal information, etc.
- Support with labelling, goods accompanying documents etc.

We are also proactive in other areas: collective purchasing, collective insurance policies, laboratory analyses, market research, etc
At our annual general meetings and regional meetings we scrutinise the aims of the association to ensure we can respond appropriately to the future requirements of members.

One of our major activities is organising joint presentations featuring the individual wine estates and offering their wines for tasting.

The climax in our calendar of events is our annual wine presentation “Vinea Tirolensis”, which takes place in South Tyrol at the end of August. This is a chance for wine lovers to become acquainted with the superb quality of our members’ wines and discuss them directly with the producers.

For several years now we have been endeavouring to become a point of reference for South Tyrol’s wine culture beyond our region by organising tastings in Italian and German cities.

We also support our members by participating in events organised by the Office for the Promotion of South Tyrol Wine, including Vinitaly and the regional Wine Show (“Bozner Weinkost”).

Our educational activities focus on areas which are not covered by public or private bodies. The main emphasis is on practical application.
It goes without saying that members of an innovative and dynamic organisation like ours are constantly on a quest to broaden their horizons by exchanging knowledge and experience with others.

Our annual field trips to other European winegrowing regions offer participants the opportunity to become acquainted with new philosophies and approaches, as well as with innovations and means of improving their viticultural and winemaking techniques.
In recent years we have organised field trips to the following prominent winegrowing regions: Tuscany, Piedmont, the Palatinate (Germany), Alsace, Burgenland (Austria), Sicily, and elsewhere.

We organise specialist lectures, talks and dissertations to enable members to keep abreast of the latest developments in the fields of winegrowing and oenology. Our excellent contacts with top professionals and researchers in specialist areas have proved an enormous advantage.