Lagrein

Lagrein originates from the Alto Adige in the north of Italy. At its best, it is intensely coloured, rich in flavour and yet soft and easy to drink, so the style is really not at all difficult for most consumers to relate to -- it is exactly what many people love to drink.

A working life spent making red wines of the style people like to drink would seem to be reason enough to do something, but Domain Day Lagrein is a bit of a different quest for Robin Day.

Certainly it has the hallmarks that make it appealing to a wide range of consumers -- it is approachable and has real berry flavours. The great surprise was to find it hiding away in the north of Italy among all those savoury, meaty Italian reds -- a little piece of new world flavour hidden from the view of all but the adventurous.

Domain Day Lagrein is a limited production but we feel that this small effort will be worthwhile. It offers a subtle difference with its aromatic, berry-like fruit character, but its palate flavours - full, rich and soft - are right in the comfort zone of most consumers. The paradox is that Lagrein, an obscure Italian variety, encapsulates the key features that have driven Australia''s export success -- fruit flavour and softness.

Lagrein seems to have settled in very well in its new home at Mt Crawford, one of the coolest locations in South Australia. Expect mulberry fruit characters, a hint of spice and a soft generous palate.

Domain Day 2004 Lagrein has been awarded a Blue-Gold medal at the Sydney International Wine Competition -- the only major international wine show where finalists are judged alongside appropriate food.

Robin Day on Lagrein - the why and the wherefore

The first time I tasted a Lagrein it was a wine from the Abtei Greis long recognized as one of the best producers. This wine is produced by the Abbey at Gries on the outskirts of Bolzano in the very northernmost part of the Alto Adige region of Italy.

Traditionally Lagrein had been used to make rose, it is only in the last forty years or so that it has been made into red wine and the Abbey was the pioneer in this pursuit.

The reason I decided to plant the variety was precisely due to how this wine tasted. It was singularly different to most other Italian varietals having a really vibrant fruit character to match its intense purple hued colour, whereas typically most Italian reds lean to the savoury end of the spectrum with accent on integrated vinous characters rather than up-front fruit.

The single most impressive thing was that this wine was all but waving to tasters out of the lineup of Italian varietals saying, "Hey I shouldn''t be here! I am much more like and Australian red style with up-front fruit and a nice supple rich soft palate."

Imagine my surprise to find that there were three vines of Lagrein in the Viticultural station at Nuriootpa and further my delight to learn that I could get a nursery to access the vines for cuttings and also obtain about 10 kilograms of grapes during the 1999 vintage.

While the nursery guys were busy propagating the vines, I set about microvinifying the 10 kilogram parcel, which is a very challenging task. The wine was carefully consigned very early into half bottles and a couple of samples were packed for my next trip to the Alto Adige in June of 1999. The wine received a pretty positive reception as being true to type.

The main thing I learned on this trip was that the observations that Lagrein is low in tannin and needs extended maceration were common. It seems to be an ideal variety for a meddlesome Aussie winemaker to finesse with. The style we make is fairly soft but if we didn''t put as much effort into achieving a balanced structure on the palate it would fall over very short on the end palate. To achieve this we give it an extended maceration on skins after the end of fermentation. The other interesting observation we have made is that it doesn''t need or accommodate a large amount of new wood aging. About one quarter of the 2004 wine didn''t go into barrel at all.

Viticulturally, the variety throws out some challenges. It is super vigorous so we use phalaris to beef up the mid row pasture mix so that we can get the moisture down to manageable levels to achieve some deficit and improve flavour and colour. We use sacrificial canes to balance the shoot vigour by leaving additional buds on two extra canes that are run up to a wire above the spur cordon and we use subsurface mid row drippers. In the period between set and veraison we attempt to practice partial root zone drying (PRD) to reduce berry size and achieve more concentration of flavour. This is a really good example of how we like to control the "terroir" by exerting as much influence as we can instead of leaving the whole of the vines environment to the chance of nature.

Our goal is simple - it is to improve the wine we make.