In the world of Italian wine, a “cooperative” winery can be a dirty word. Not that there’s anything wrong with a group of area grapegrowers banding together to make, sell and market wine. It’s just that many a big cooperative (cantine sociale) is known for making cheap, commoditized wines on an industrial scale.

But it’s not always like that. Some smaller, stellar cooperatives have greatly improved local vino; many of the best are concentrated way up north in Italy’s German-speaking Alto Adige (or South Tyrol) region, where wine co-ops rank among top producers.