In 1977, the first cork popped off in the Winkler sparkling wine factory, which at that time was just called Winkler. Father Helmuth, a small winegrower, was never interested in producing still wine. Although he delivered some of his harvest to the Cornaiano cellar cooperative, he was not satisfied with that. He wanted more: to produce his own sparkling wine.
Like many winegrowers from South Tyrol and Trentino, Helmuth attended the agricultural high school in San Michele at that time. There, in Trentino, he became enthusiastic about sparkling wine. Until then he had no connection to it, because there was no sparkling wine production in South Tyrol at that time. During his studies, he was so intrigued by sparkling wine that, he went on trips to the Champagne region together with San Michele director and later mentor Dr. Spagnolli to get inspiration. In the early 1970s he began to ferment small batches of sparkling wine in the bottle at home. At the beginning fermenting only pure Pinot Blanc, since the credo at that time was no blends! Some time later, the enterprising Helmuth created a second line, which included Chardonnay in barrique, as well as a rosé made from 100 per cent Pinot Noir. After founding the winery, Winkler had a production of about 6,000 bottles, which has slowly increased over the years. Shortly before Helmuth's passing, the winery reached an annual production of about 20,000 bottles.

Michael produces his sparkling wines from cuvées, blends of different grape varieties. He wants to go his own way, not copy his father and give the products that leave Lammweg No. 12 his own signature.
Michael has revived the sparkling wine cellar in the second generation; the third is already in the starting blocks. From an early age, he inherited a passion for sparkling wine. He helped his father with filling, stacking, remuage, everything. Michael attended the agricultural high school in Ora. When he was barely 18 years old, the family thought about building a wine cellar on the farm. In the long term, still wine should also be produced. Unfortunately, Helmuth fell seriously ill and so the sparkling wine cellar was abandoned in 2001. The premises of the former winery were rented and the owner wanted to sell the entire property (at that time, the tenancy agreements had a term of only one year). And so the Winkler sparkling winery fell asleep. However, the sparkling wine ran in Michael's blood and he had plenty of patience. He left the business for a while and ended up in sales and marketing, but with the aim in the background to re-establish the winery one day.