Alois Lageder Cabernet Sauvignon Cor Romigberg

Alois Lageder Cabernet Sauvignon Cor Romigberg

Alois Lageder is one of the major players on the South Tyrol wine map producing a large and varied quantity of quality and affordable wines. In it's fifth generation, the latest Lageder is one of the pioneers in bio dynamic wine making in the region. Lageder, like many producers in the area, buy in grapes from local growers for many of their cheaper, single varietal wines. Most of these wines are fair priced and jolly good examples of the vast variety of grapes able to reach full ripeness in the cool but endlessly sunny Southern Tyrol.

The single vineyard-Lageder produced wines are grown along bio dynamic lines and the entire estate is environmentally adapted to the nth degree with solar panelling propelling the operation.

Alois Lageders Cabernet Sauvignon Cor Romigberg is practically unrivalled in the Southern Tyrol. Although the area is blessed with a ridiculous amount of sunshine hours, Cabernet Sauvignon is perhaps not one of the varieties that springs to mind when we envisage the Southern Tyrol because Cabernet Sauvignon likes to bask in the heat to fully ripen. However, it is the exceptional management of the vines here, as well as exhaustive analysis of the grapes that has produced a cool climate Cabernet without the "green".

The Romigberg vineyards are one of the most southerly of the Lageder parcels, several miles south of Bolzano and just north of the town of Termeno. Nestled between lake and mountain, it is little surprise then that this Cabernet Sauvignon has a very real and pronounced vein of minerality. What is a surprise is the luscious fruit, spice and floral notes that the wine offers. Containing just 3% Petit Verdot as an accompanying grape it seems improbable that the PV is driving the fruit.

The Cor Romigberg is the pride of the Lageder brand and spends 20 months in two thirds new french oak followed by a further 8 in bottle before release. The vines are at high density using the Guyot trellising system. In Italy these wines come onto the market around the €30 mark which, comparing to Tuscan Cabernet Sauvignons of this standard is a remarkable bargain. This is a classic cool climate Cabernet so don't imagine that the flavour profile will be anything like a Tuscan or southern Italian Cab.

Recently I had the opportunity to try the '03, a blazing hot vintage throughout Italy that played a part in reducing the usual minerality of the wine and gave further notice to the fruit. The Cor Romigberg is a wine that can benefit from cellaring in more typical vintages, however with the '03 I'm happy to say the wine is drinking beautifully at the end of 2009.

Alois Lageder Cabernet Sauvignon Cor Romigberg 2003 - BUY - £32
The darkest brooding ruby red. The nose is at once cherries, oak inspired spice, cassis and tobacco, a real aroma fans wine. On the palate the wine has strong but not aggressive tannins, it is powerful and the fruit is complimented by a straight minerality that gives this wine it's cool climate Cabernet feel. The finish is long and fruit driven the same as the attack. 90 Points.

Without tasting previous vintages it is hard to know if the Cor Romigberg is never green due to the grape selection process or if this particular vintage was so warm in the Southern Tyrol that this vintage is an anomaly putting it somewhere between a hot and cold climate Cabernet, it is at the very least a delicious wine.

Food Match: Lamb cutlets.

Best Wines from this Producer: Consistently excellent within their varietal.

Cabernet Sauvignon Cor Romigberg
Sauvignon Lehenhof
Chardonnay Lowengang
Pinot Grigio Benefizium Porer
Pinot Nero Krafuss

Where can I buy this Wine?
Europeans - Superiore.de - €36
Americans - SS Wines - $26.99
Brits - Superiore.de - £32

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Hugh Johnson's Pocket Wine Book 2010

Hugh Johnson's Pocket Wine Book 2010

Hugh Johnson's Pocket Wine Book 2010 was popped under my door this week and is the 33rd edition of one of the UK's most popular yearly wine guides. The guide is packed with everything you need to know about producers, grape varieties, the best vintages, when the wines are ready for consumption etc and is a really great guide to food accompaniments. However, unless you have particularly thin and freakishly long "pockets" you can't really call this a pocket guide. You can call it a handbag or manbag sized wine book but I doubt the people at Mitchell Beazley are going to change the name on account of me. We could petition them?

So who is Hugh Johnson?

If there is a wine enthusiast who hasn't heard of Hugh Johnson and doesn't have just one of his books I would be amazed. Hugh is behind several wine bibles including this yearly pocket wine book and the World Atlas of Wine (with Ja-Ro*) and Hugh Johnson's Wine Companion.

What sets this guide apart from other Pocket Guides is Hugh himself. From reading the foreword you get a real sense of Hugh's priorities and his devotion to wine including his deep and understandable concern about the EUs interference with our time honoured passion. Having myself spent some time talking to producers in the Rhone last year it's true that in France, as well as the rest of Europe, the attempts by the government to install a kind of prohibition are causing widespread concern for drinkers and producers alike.

Hugh has also given us, in this edition, a little something extra. A list of the best wines he has tried in the last 12 months. Of course, we all have our own palates and our taste buds may not run along Hugh's line or our pockets as deep, but the wines he has chosen are at least indicative of a wine performing to excellence within it's varietal and for wine enthusiasts whose tastes are broad these tips will be much appreciated.

The real winning formula behind this book is not simply Hugh's information and experience but the ease of use. Starting with easy to read vintage tables and progressing to a concise description of grape varieties, the best section is, in my humble opinion, the food matching guide. I have found with many pocket guides that this vital information is completely omitted, however in this book you can look up any number of meals and food types and be presented with several options for accompanying wines, including different cheese and vegetarian plates. There is but one problem with this, Hugh. It's the wrong way around. As a wine-o, I have countless bottles of wine lying around and want to know what food I should be buying for my wines, not which wines I should be buying for my food! For dinner parties my first thought is "which of my wines is at it's peak right now", then I will build a meal around it. Wine first, food second!

As an Italian wine enthusiast, this guide, like all general wine guides, isn't bursting with Italian-centric information. It covers the usual suspects in both grape variety and producers and only covers the vintages of the Piedmont and Tuscany so hard cheese to anyone in love with Amarone (which FYI, is a perfect wine/cheese combo) for that kind of information you have to buy the Gambero Rosso guides. This book tells me, Sarah Newton, nothing I don't already know about Italian wine but as I do drink wines from around the world it would be the first book I went to if I had a quick question about what to match with my Côte-Rôtie this weekend.

Even if you have the '09 guide, you should need to upgrade, you have a vintage report and the listings of the last drinkable year, but also every year the book covers new wine making areas in more detail. I may be among the few, but actually I do want to know if Romania and China are producing better wines!

This book is perfect for the serious wine drinker, but when you kick it up a notch to "geek" it doesn't cover everything but that's why it's called a pocket guide and of all the pocket guides around - the smart money's on Hugh. Just swap around the food matching and add vintage guides to Sicily and the Veneto to the 2011 book please Mr Johnson.

Where can I buy this Book?

A family run business - Amazon.com - £6.59

*Ja-Ro - Jancis Robinson