J. Hofstätter Wine Dinner at Lucciola NYC | Exclusive Alto Adige Wine Pairing Experience
Lucciola NYC Wine Club — An Intimate Evening with one of Alto Adige's Finest
Lucciola NYC is proud to welcome J. Hofstätter to our exclusive Wine Club dinner on May 12th, on the Upper West Side. Founded in 1907 by Josef and Maria Hofstätter in the historic wine village of Tramin, Alto Adige, the winery has grown into one of the most esteemed and forward-thinking Italian family wineries in the world. This evening we sit down with the fifth generation — Niklas Foradori Hofstätter, 28 years old — to talk about mountains, minerals, and what it means to carry one of Alto Adige's greatest wine legacies into the future.
The Dolomites Are in Your Glass
Le Dolomiti le senti nel calice.
These words are coming from Niklas, who grew up quite literally between the vines in Trentino Alto-Adige, at the meeting point of the Alps and the Dolomites, enclosed by mountains on every side. That geography makes your glass of wine interesting. The soils here are among the most mineral-rich in all of Italy — a complex layering of volcanic porphyry, calcareous rock, glacial deposits, and ancient sediment that accumulated over millennia as the mountains formed around them. The result is a terroir of extraordinary density and variety, where a single hillside can shift from one soil type to another within a few hundred meters, and where each shift is felt directly in the wine.
The mountain position creates another dimension entirely: altitude. Vines planted between 250 and 900 meters above sea level experience dramatic swings between warm daytime temperatures and cool alpine nights. That thermal range is what keeps Alto Adige white wines taut and mineral even in vintages, and what makes this one of the most climate-resilient wine regions in Europe.
Lucciola NYC: wine selection
Come Taste the Alto Adige Single-Vineyard Wines and Learn Something Unique
Did you know that the mountains make the work harder?
Working in the Dolomite is physically demanding. But the mountain also protects you in ways that are becoming more and more important. As temperatures rise across Europe due to climate change, the altitude acts as a vault. Alto Adige vines are naturally cooler, naturally more protected.
Which vintages should people be paying attention to from J. Hofstätter?
2014, 2016, and 2021 are the ones Niklas would point to.
An Exclusive Italian Wine Pairing Dinner in New York City
This is what the Lucciola NYC Wine Club was built for. Not a tasting event, not a lecture, but a dinner where guests and producers sit at the same table. A seasonal tasting menu by Chef Michele Casadei Massari crafted to move alongside these wines, and the J. Hofstätter family present to share their story in their own words, guiding the guests through the landscapes of North of Italy.
