Food & Tradition

Marillenknödel are the kitchen's answer to the apricot harvest. A whole fruit sits inside the dough, with a piece of sugar often replacing the pit, and the whole thing is rolled in toasted buttered breadcrumbs. A small glass of apricot brandy alongside revisits the same fruit once more, just without the sweetness.

Things turn heartier with Schüttelbrot and Vinschger Paarl. Schüttelbrot is a thin, hard rye bread and even carries its own protected geographical indication as Südtiroler Schüttelbrot. Vinschger Paarl is baked in pairs and pairs well with speck and cheese, just as they're served on mountain farms throughout the Vinschgau and Eisacktal.

The cuisine of the Eisacktal and Vinschgau is down-to-earth: speck dumplings in soup, alongside bread, cheese and speck from the board. A small glass might then stand on the table afterward, more as a conclusion to the meal than a drink to quench thirst. Apricot brandy also finds its way into the kitchen itself, for instance in dough or in a fruit sauce.

Does a schnapps after a meal aid digestion? Not really. Alcohol tends to slow gastric emptying rather than speed it up. If things feel easier afterward, that's relaxation at work, not faster digestion.

Gentian has its own history in these valleys. The right to dig gentian roots is documented in Tyrolean sources as far back as 1705, and digging on the alpine meadows was long hard manual labor. Anyone considering a glass of Südtiroler Enzian alongside cheese or dessert today is holding, in a sense, a piece of alpine farming tradition in their hand.