When a vocation becomes a life’s work.
The history of ARUNDA
At the beginning of the 1970s, Josef Reiterer and his wife Marianne acquired an old house in the centre of Meltina. They toyed with the idea of producing bottle-fermented sparkling wine in their mountain village.
The ARUNDA adventure begins
Through a friendship with Sebastian Stocker, then cellar master at Cantina Terlano, they jointly developed the strategy for producing base wines for sparkling wine according to the most up-to-date knowledge of the time. From this idea, Josef Reiterer began with 300 bottles and traditional bottle fermentation, creating sparkling wine for special occasions. The foundation stone for today’s family business. Tirelessly, he researched ways to further develop the quality of his pearl-rich pleasures for the palate. Always with a clear focus on unadulterated sparkling wine enjoyment.
ARUNDA is named after a mountain in Val Venosta. A border region with the canton of Grigioni and an expression of walking a fine line between dream and possibility. Belief in the inexhaustible potential of our homeland, combined with the desire to create something truly unique.
Why Meltina?
One thing is clear: Meltina offers a distinct location advantage. As the highest sparkling wine cellar in Europe, at an altitude of 1,200 m, ARUNDA benefits from cool temperatures. Ideal for the long-term, natural ageing of sparkling wine! In addition, bottle fermentation is favoured, meaning it proceeds more slowly and results in a more complex and finer perlage.
Although Meltina is officially registered as a wine-growing municipality, historically there were no vineyards here due to the altitude. The grapes for our base wines are therefore produced for us in Terlano, Cornaiano, Appiano and Salorno. Josef has always maintained close relationships with the winegrowers, whose work is reflected in the quality of the grapes, and with the cellar masters, whose expertise determines the quality of the base wines. This close collaboration has now existed for almost half a century. And from these very base wines, using the necessary experience, intuition and specialised expertise, we create our unique cuvées.
Trailblazer and pioneer
Josef also played a key role in developing guidelines for sparkling wine production in South Tyrol and anchoring them in the South Tyrolean wine law. In the 1990s, together with other producers, he founded the South Tyrolean Sparkling Wine Association. At that time, sparkling wine production in South Tyrol experienced a small renaissance, with estates such as Haderburg and Praeclarus. The aim was to draw attention to the producers. It was also agreed that South Tyrol sparkling wine should be made exclusively from the grape varieties Chardonnay, Pinot Bianco and Pinot Nero.
Over time, ARUNDA has expanded steadily and today produces around 120,000 bottles per year. The main goal: to create sparkling wines of the highest quality that retain their freshness and elegance even after many years in the bottle.
To the future!
Since 2023, the cellar has been run by Wolfgang Tratter. Wolfgang joined the company as majority owner and has known ARUNDA for many years. For him, Sepp was always like a mentor and encouraged Wolfgang early on to study oenology. After several years of subsequent experience in the international wine world, he was cellar master at Cantina St. Pauls from 2006 to 2022.
With him, the future of ARUNDA is secured, and through his new ideas the estate will continue to develop. In the coming years, the product range will be refined and the quality concept further expanded.
