Browse Tag

alto adige

Muscat love

Lageder 2004 Vogelmeier Moscato Giallo (Alto Adige) – Brilliant, perfumed muscat with the added complexity of a cool, crystalline mineral core. Faceted and pretty, yet slightly sterner than many muscats, and very, very well done.

Terroirs vary in the Alto Adige, but the overwhelming regional influence on virtually the entire palette of grapes is one of Teutonic austerity carried on metal and stone. As a lover of minerality in wines, I’m strongly drawn to this characteristic. What too often happens, however, is that the wine itself is not up to the structural challenge. Thankfully, that’s not the case here. Alcohol: 13%. Importer: Lageder USA. Web: http://www.lageder.com/.

Tòr-iffic

Lageder “Tòr Löwengang” 2004 Pinot Bianco Haberlehof (Alto Adige) – Stunning, intense and pure. Dried white winter fruit ground to a micropowder, with powerful glacial minerality and a long, vibrant finish. Really amazing.

The Alto Adige is one of the most beautiful wine regions on the planet, with sheer, ice-capped mountains and cliffs sheltering warm valleys, and vines trussed up steep hillsides; some of these sites may well require a Sherpa at harvest time. Since there’s no real restriction on what can and can’t be made under the appellation laws, there’s no signature identity of the region except the one you might expect: a stern, mineral-driven austerity indicative of both the climate and the hybrid Italian/Austrian culture. When it fails, one is merely left with a severe, overly-restrained wine. When it succeeds, as in the rest of the Germanic wine world, it succeeds brilliantly. This wine, from older (for pinot bianco) vines at 1500 feet and aged with the very slightest touch of new wood (which here shows more oxidative than flavor-deforming), is an unquestioned success. Importer: Lageder USA. Alcohol: 13%. Web: http://www.lageder.com/