Butchery Mair

It all began with a great-uncle: Adolf Mair. He knew that if one wants to provide outstanding meat, the finest of sausages and the very best of speck, a good relationship of mutual trust with the farmers is of the highest importance. Adolf and his wife had no children of their own, and their inheritance was passed on to their niece Margit. She and her husband Ernst Kuenrath modernised the premises and continued to nurture their good relationship with the farming community, a tradition which was also upheld by the third generation, Karoline and Roland Kuenrath. Roland went on to expand the business by opening a new butcher’s in Mals/Malles, where the family also ran the Obervinschgau/Alta Val Venosta Valley slaughterhouse, while Karoline was one of the first women in South Tyrol to become a fully-qualified butcher.

The Mair butcher’s slaughter their meat themselves in the Mals slaughterhouse, but have to buy in their meat as there are no large-scale pig breeders in the region. The pigs are inspected and evaluated by Ernst Kuenrath in person. In order to stay in business, they offer their customers an array of fringe services, including Vinschger Fingerfood, a speciality catering service which supplies, amongst others, speck, cheese and Schüttelbrot rye flatbread. They also sell gift boxes packed with regional specialities, which are extremely popular.

70 - 80 % of Mair speck is sold to private customers, and the remainder goes to the local hospitality industry. Speck is and remains the mainstay of the company, and the recipe they use has been tweaked to perfection over the decades: father Ernst has a permit to harvest the juniper bushes which he uses to smoke the meat. The purity of the herbs is paramount, as this is what gives their speck its magnificent aroma.