Lagrein - not a sexy Latin dance!

Peter Creasey

Peter Creasey
Or so says Imagery, a producer of Lagrein!

Someone served this to me the other day...

Lagrein: A little known red wine varietal native to northwestern Italy's Trentino region. Relatively rare, even in Italy, in California it is almost non-existent: fewer than 100 producing acres are currently planted.

lagrein.jpg
My first exposure! If served blind, I would have thought it was a good quality Zin.

Interesting!

. . . . . Pete
 
Lagrein can be very interesting, and can come in very different styles ranging from zippy to heavyweight. I used to love bringing the latter, riserva-type as a ringer to events where people were bringing culty Napa cabs and such because they had the slathering richness to blend in but tasted a lot more interesting. I'm not sure I made any converts, though.

I still have a few bottles of the 2000 Novacella Riserva Praepositus which is the one that floored me on release and put me on the lagrein kick for awhile.
 
I have drunk all my old Nusserhofs, I think at reasonable times, but a recent '01, was it (?) was still great.
 
plus ça change plus c'est la même chose.

or, at least, that's what the fatsink says.

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originally posted by Todd Abrams: Pete, are you sure that's an authentic image of a Lagrein grape cluster?

Todd, No! I just made available what Imagery Wine Estates presented on their web site as an image of a Lagrein grape cluster.

. . . . . Pete
 
Well, just the other day I saw someone trying to pass off an image of a Cabernet Sauvignon cluster as a Cabernet Franc cluster. As if...

More importantly, this 2008 Cuvée des Collosses is drinking like a champ presently. A mere Herault Vin de France made up of Syrah, Carignan (partial carbonic maceration), and a wee bit of Grenache for some red fruit flavors. Lots of length on this one. What the sales team probably calls a value wine. It shows no indications of imminent death and the Internet sells it for $14.
 
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