Kohl Mountain Apple Juice, all-natural juices from the Ritten in South Tyrol
Kohl Mountain Apple Juice consists of all-natural juices made from the family's own apples, grown on the Ritten plateau in South Tyrol at an altitude of well over 900 to almost 1,000 meters above sea level. Thomas Kohl produces four lines: single-varietal gourmet juices, cuvées with fruit, blossoms, and herbs, sparkling varieties, and two Grand Crus in magnum bottles.
Kohl Mountain Apple Juice is the business run by Thomas Kohl on the Ritten, a high plateau above Bolzano where you wouldn't typically expect to find apple orchards. Around the Troidner Hof—the family's mountain farm—grow the apples for juices that are winning awards throughout the Alpine region. Today, Kohl offers four lines: Gourmet, Cuvée, Sparkling, and Grand Cru.
Twenty years ago, looking out at the apple trees
“Twenty years ago, I had the feeling that I wanted to try something new,” explains Thomas Kohl, who grew up in the mountains, looking out over his apple trees.
At first, he didn't want to take over his father's farm because cattle weren't really his thing. “So I persuaded my father to plant apples on the mountain and make juice out of them,” the charming apple juice connoisseur continues. His father, Karl Kohl, was glad that his son finally wanted to take over the farm—and trusted his idea, even though hardly anyone else was growing fruit at that altitude.
“Of course, I didn't think that my apples, growing at an altitude of nearly 1,000 meters on the Ritten, would one day be pressed into the best fruit juice in Italy, but I certainly hoped so,” he laughs mischievously. The feeling turned into a craft, and the craft into a title that no one else holds: Italy’s first apple juice connoisseur (affineur).
The Troidner Hof, as the family’s mountain estate has always been called, is located in Unterinn on the Ritten at an altitude of well over 900 meters. The highest orchards reach nearly 1,000 meters—an altitude where fruit growing usually ends elsewhere.
Anyone who has ever been to the Ritten knows the scenery: meadows, forests, old farmsteads, and in between, apple trees that are actually at too high an altitude. It is precisely this extreme elevation that is the reason why the juices taste the way they do.
Cool climate at one thousand meters
What makes Kohl mountain apple juices so vibrant is the altitude. At well over 900 to nearly 1,000 meters, the apples grow through cool nights and long, sunny days—a “cool climate,” as one would say of wine. The juices that result are juicy, spicy, and elegant.
The greater the difference between the warm day and the cool night, the more acidity is preserved in the fruit, and the clearer the aroma will later manifest in the glass. This very acidity is Kohl’s greatest asset: without it, the single-varietal juices would taste flat, and in the cuvées, no one could keep the partner ingredients in check, which would otherwise overpower everything else.
“The taste and quality of an apple juice are created while the fruit is still hanging on the tree,” Thomas Kohl is convinced. For this reason, every variety of mountain apple is nurtured throughout the year, every apple is picked by hand when it is truly ripe, and the next morning it is gently processed into juice in their own press—only briefly heated and then filled into clear bottles.
From the single-varietal bottle to the magnum
The Kohl Gourmet mountain apple juices are single-varietal and naturally cloudy: Rouge, Gravensteiner, Rubinette, Pinova, Sonnenglanz, and Jonagold, with each variety pressed individually. Let yourself be surprised by how differently they taste—from cherry-red and acid-forward to honey-sweet and soft.
The Kohl Cuvées add a second voice to the mountain apple: a fruit like apricot or pear, a berry like wild blueberry or redcurrant, a blossom like elderflower, an herb like apple mint, or even a vegetable like carrot. Both partners should benefit—that is the art of being an apple juice connoisseur. By the way, if you still know these juices as Kohl Essence, you are looking in the right place: that is what the line used to be called.
Kohl Sparkling is the latest line, a bubbly non-alcoholic aperitif. And Kohl Grand Cru is the smallest: two old apple varieties, Ananasrenette and Wintercalville, available exclusively in magnum bottles. Thomas Kohl’s personal favorites.
Why single-varietal makes the difference
Not every apple is the same. Anyone who tastes the single-varietal juices side-by-side will realize this within two sips.
The Rouge is cherry-red even inside the flesh because the Weirouge variety contains so many anthocyanins that even the cut apple remains color-fast. The Gravensteiner, documented since 1669, stores so poorly that it practically has to go straight from the tree to the press—in exchange, its juice tastes the way apples used to taste.
The Rubinette is considered by some to be the best apple in the world, yet it is prone to scab, which makes it uninteresting for large-scale retail. And the Sonnenglanz, part of the Gourmet line since May 2024, is, of all things, a descendant of the Pinova—the son of the national champion, so to speak.
Those who love such varieties nurture them. This is exactly where the appeal of Kohl mountain apple juice lies: single-varietal, naturally cloudy, slow-grown—six characters, each of which deserves its own bottle.
Twice the best fruit juice in Italy
At the “Mostbarkeiten,” the major Alpine-Adriatic tasting in Carinthia, Kohl took the national victory for Italy two years in a row: in 2019 with the single-varietal Pinova mountain apple juice, and in 2020 with the mountain apple juice with blueberries.
Both times, the same address appears in the official list of winners: Thomas Kohl, 39054 Unterinn am Ritten—which can be read in the results from 2019 and 2020. Being named the best fruit juice in an entire country two years in a row—once as a single-varietal and once as a cuvée—is quite an achievement.
At the 2019 tasting, eight different Kohl juices made it onto the podium: four gold, two silver, and two bronze. For a mountain farm of this size, that is a real statement. At that time, nearly 1,600 products from 300 producers from 5 countries were presented to a 25-member expert jury. The highest score of the entire competition went to the apple juice with elderflower: 20 out of 20 points. Remarkable.
What is finally in the bottle
All ingredients are processed at the state of maximum ripeness. In the end, what is in the bottle is apple—and in the case of the cuvées, its partner, nothing else. The juice is preserved solely through gentle pasteurization: heat for a few moments, then rapidly cooled down again.
All Kohl mountain apple juices carry the Vegan label of the European Vegetarian Union and contain neither animal ingredients nor products from genetically modified organisms. Serve them well-chilled at 8 to 10 degrees in a stemmed glass so that the aromas can unfold as they would with a wine; the Sparkling slightly cooler, the Grand Crus at 8 to 12 degrees. Once opened, the bottles should be kept in the refrigerator and will stay fresh for about 6 days.
And where should you start? If you are not yet familiar with Kohl mountain apple juice, start with the Jonagold—sweet, soft, elegant, and one that everyone truly likes. If you want to know how far an apple juice can go, try the apple juice with hops—spicy, sweet-tart, and awarded gold at the tasting. And for those who want to experience the whole range immediately, choose the 12-bottle mountain apple juice sampler pack. Since 2002, we have seen many juices on our shelves—these are the ones that are here to stay.
