So you are planning a visit to Trentino-Alto Adige, a region of northeastern Italy bordering Switzerland and Austria that features the Alps and the Dolomites. Ski resorts abound as do forests. Most residents of Alto Adige designate German as their mother tongue. Let’s start at Caldaro in the southwest of Alto Adige. Its town center hosts and the historic Church of Santa Caterina in the center of Caldaro; it’s also home to a beautiful lake and the Museo Provinciale del Vino. Naturno is home to the Seventh Century Church of San Procolo whose ancient frescoes are among the oldest in the German-speaking world. Nearby you’ll find the Thirteenth Century Castel Juval. Merano, sometimes called the city of flowers, boasts many beautiful promenades. The famous Cure Promenade splits into two, the shady Passeggiata d’Estate (Summer Promenade) and the sunny Passeggiata d’Inverno (Winter Promenade). If you’re in the neighborhood be sure to see its Christmas Market. The local capital Bolzano (Bozen) has a fine Gothic cathedral, other churches worth visiting, as is South Tyrol Archeological Museum whose star attraction is Oetzi, the over five thousand year old iceman. There’s a strada del vino (Weinstrasse-wine route), which runs mostly in Alto Adige from Salarno to Bolzano.

Trentino has many sights to see including Museo Storico Italiano della Guerra (Italian Historical War Museum) in Roverto. Its capital, Trento, was the site of the historic Council of Trent that shaped the Church in the Sixteenth Century and is home to many classical churches. Don’t miss the fresco collection at the Museo Provinciale d’Arte (Provincial Art Museum) situated in the Castello del Buonconsiglio (Castle of Good Counsel). Madonna di Campiglio advertises itself as Italy’s number one ski resort.

The region is not home to any DOCG wines and few of the DOC wines stand out from the others. Perhaps surprisingly given its northern location, this region still produces more red than white wine. Regional wine classification is different from most of the rest of Italy. The Alto Adige DOC includes dozens and dozens of grape varieties and styles. Trentino and Alto Adige share only two designations. It’s fair to say that you can’t pick a wine on the basis of its name. But isn’t that often the case elsewhere in Italy, and around the world?

Grape varieties abound. Let’s start with the whites. Gewuerztraminer may have first come from in the Alto Adige town of Termeno (Tramin). Pinot Bianco is important as is Sauvignon Blanc often called Sauvignon. The popular German Mueller-Thurgau does quite well in Trentino. Try to find Nosiola, a Trentino native. The major local red is Schiava (Vernatsch) in both Trentino and Alto Adige. Other important local Trentino varieties include Teroldego and Marzemino. Alto Adige’s second most popular local red grape is Lagrein. The popular international red grapes are Pinot Nero, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Merlot which are also grown in Trentino. My apologies for the relative complexity of the region wine scenes.

Companies selling regional wine tours include Prime Italy, Vineria, Wine Tour Italia, and Alabaster and Clark Wine Tours Worldwide. Some of the regional wineries accepting visitors include Pojer e Sandri in Faedo, Tiefenbrunner in Bolzano, and Cantina Produttori Valle Isarco in Chiusa. A few words of warning are in order. Make sure that you check ahead of time for opening hours and whether English is spoken. Some of these places may charge admission; others may expect that you purchase some of their products.

Fitness researchers have extensively speculated why the French, who have a fondness for rich sauces and also fat-rich food, have a tendency to exist just as lengthy individuals with healthier eating practices. A rise in current research inform a probable explanation: France’s consistent love for red wine that has Reversatrol, a substance shown to prolong the existence of fruit flies, yeast cultures, and which may have the same advantageous results on humans by reducing cholesterol levels. In one research just printed in the periodical Nature, experts discovered that the substance imitates the result of a reduced-calorie diet, which has been proven to prolong the survival of mice by thirty to fifty percent. It requires further research, but there is the possibility that human existence could be lengthened.

The substance, which has life-maintaining properties, is manufactured biologically by grapes to combat fungal diseases that begin when it is moist outside. The quantity in wine differs far and wide, depending on the location the variety of grape was cultivated, and how it was produced. For instance, because it is present mainly on grape skins, it is more or less not found in the majority of white wines, which are fermented only once the skin is taken off. The same is accurate with other manufactured red wines that are strained to take away the tannins, which can make newly bottled wines taste pungent; however, straining at the same time gets rid of the beneficial substance.

In a research of a large number of wines from all over the world, discovered the maximum Reversatrol levels in Pinot Noir grapes cultivated in colder, drizzly locations such as the Oregon’s Willamette Valley and the Finger Lakes area of upstate New York. In reality, its maximum content is there in a wine, Vinifera’s Fleur de Pinot Noir, with quadruple counts as much as the closest California Pinot Noir assessed. Extensively planted in France’s cold Burgundy area, Pinot Noir is considered a finicky grape to cultivate, partially since it is vulnerable to decompose, which may be the explanation it makes more of the substance than other grapes, up to forty times as much of it as grapes like Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot.