Butchery Gstör

It’s a rare sight to see: The Tschenett family in Algund/Lagundo do it all themselves, from start to finish. The process begins with the animals at their small livestock farm, which are then slaughtered in the family’s own slaughterhouse, sold in the family butcher’s shop and served for tasting sessions in the family’s guest houses: The Hotel Gstör, the Grill-Garten, the Residence Pension Sonnenbichl, the Töllerhof, the Mexican Restaurant and the Gstör Pizzeria all belong to the family company.

The quality of their speck is particularly important to the Tschenett family, and it must be cured for a specific length of time: The famed seal of quality which is fire-branded onto Speck Alto Adige is applied to the ham only after 25 weeks of curing. This makes the speck wonderfully juicy - a fatty speck is better than a lean one. The perfect speck, or so they say here, should be the colours of the South Tyrol flag - half red, and half white.

All this didn’t all just fall into the Tschenett family’s lap: Their grandfather bought the farm, where the company premises are still located to this day. His son died very young, leaving his wife widowed with four children: One of these children was Franz Tschenett’s father who wanted to build upon his grandfather’s dream. With his wife by his side to help him along, he constructed his buildings single-handedly and now, together with Franz, carries his life’s work onwards.

The family are not planning to expand their butcher’s business or selling to supermarkets or wholesalers; the Tschnetts are much more interested in producing the very best of quality and focussing their energies on local products.