When autumn arrives in South Tyrol’s mountains, the Eisacktal’s so-called 5th season, the Törggelen season, commences. The most beautiful hiking month coincides with the local culinary high season. In October and November, the typical wine taverns and country inns open their gates and invite guests to enjoy the fall’s colourful splendour and the last warm days across the entire valley. It is hereby a matter of course that hiking and culinary pleasures perfectly complement each other.
Past old farms you cross picturesque vineyards and old chestnut groves before reaching your well-deserved rest-stop destination. Numerous traditional parlours attract hikers to taste the fruit and work of the summer, while people make music, sing or share their anecdotes. “Törggelen at the origin” – when visiting the Eisacktal in autumn, joining one of these traditional events is an absolute must.
The Törggelen tradition (from Latin Torquere, “Torggel“ = winepress) originates from the custom of enjoying the “Siaßen” sweet young, not yet fermented grape juice and/or the “Nuien“ the half-fermented wine after a day’s work of harvesting together with all the aides. That, of course, requires a savoury basis in the form of bacon, hard or flat bread, nuts, cabbage, meat, barley soup, as well as Tyrolean and spinach-filled dumplings – and last but not least “Keschtn“, i.e. chestnuts and sweet doughnuts. As digestive treat and as a matching conclusion of an entertaining evening, a glass of nut liqueur or plum schnapps is always an option.