Lagrein

We are big fans of Lagrein here at WD and have been ever since we latched onto the magnificent Geoff Hardy 2013 Lagrein. It's taken us until now to find another one which we love as much – the 2016 Silhouette Lagrein…

History

Lagrein is one of those varieties which can produce exceptional wines in a wide variety of different climates. Its home is in the Alto Adige/ South Tyrol in Northern Italy, which is bordered by Austria, Lichtenstein and Switzerland… a properly cold place to grow grapes. In spite of this the fruit also gets some decent pulses of hear in the ripening period … and produces complex and long lived red wine with plenty of tannin and acid, low ph, minerality and huge flavours. They can tend toward rusticity with furry tannins.

In Australia

Lagrein can also excel in the Murray Darling and Riverland which are pretty much at the opposite end of the climate spectrum to the grapes' homeland. Australia’s production of the variety is only very recent, with few if any growers at the turn of the century and perhaps as little as 40 now. Plenty of these plantings are in the very warm climes of the Murray Darling and Riverland. One such example is the Silhouette 2016 Lagrein – a massive, black, tarry, blue fruit compote explosion of a wine. Drink it by itself with medics on standby or pair it up with a dinosaur or woolly mammoth steak.