Born in 1900, the Cantina di Caldaro, or rather Kaltern, in German, after a series of company integrations and mergers has become the largest cooperative winery in South Tyrol. It produces about 4 million bottles a year with the grapes of 650 contributing members who in all share 500 hectares of vineyards. The extreme fragmentation is the real strong point of the winery, because each vintner manages his own plot of land as if it were a garden with manual operations and almost plant by plant care. Altogether there are 1100 distinct vineyards divided into 2000 plots, for each of which the Kaltern Winery determines what the yield and destination of the grapes must be. Each farmer knows which wine he contributes to.

The Caldaro area is famous for its lake which is the largest in South Tyrol and mitigates the climate of the surrounding vineyards, which are mainly cultivated with a black grape variety: the Schiava. The soils of the vineyards are heterogeneous and are located at varying altitudes between 200 and 700 meters. The subsoil is partly of dolomitic limestone, of sedimentary origin and partly of porphyry and quartz porphyry of metamorphic and volcanic origin. The soil is made up of gravelly and partly clayey alluvial deposits. Thanks to these differences, the winery has managed to differentiate the production range into multiple labels.

Viticulture follows a holistic approach, inspired by principles of environmental sustainability, many of the contributing members work in an organic or even biodynamic regime and the support of the cooperative pushes all members in this direction. The production philosophy tends to bring out the varietal character of the grape varieties grown both in the classic line and in the selections.