Grape · Alto Adige, Italy
Lagrein
lah-GRINE
Alto Adige's dark red
A cocoa-and-violet red from the Alps: denser than Schiava, more savory than Merlot, and increasingly bottled as a serious mountain wine.
- blackberry
- cocoa
- violet
- plum
- smoke
Profile
Bodymedium
Acidmedium
Tanninmedium
Sugardry
Lagrein likes the warm floor of the Adige valley and the cool nights above it. It can be rustic and bitter if over-extracted; in the right hands it is plush, floral, and distinctly alpine.
Kretzer is the pale rosato. Reserve bottles take oak and time. It is the red to order when you are tired of international grapes on an Italian mountain list.
Speck, game, and aged alpine cheese.
At the table
Service
59–63 °F (15–17 °C).
