WTN: Kellerei Tramin Lagrein Alto Adige DOC 08

It's not the easiest wine to find, I'll admit. It's well off the familiar well-beaten wine path, for sure. And while it's not expensive, and most you do find are well worth the price, it's not exactly a bargain leader either. Most times when I tell people I love Lagrein I get a puzzled look. As in, "WTF is he talking about now?"

Lagrein is a deep, dark red wine from the Trentino-Alto Adige in North Italy, and only rarely found outside that region (although I did find a delicious one in a single-vineyard plot in the Willamette Valley in Oregon!) Supposedly descended from the also fairly obscure Teroldego grape from the same region, Lagrein tends to be what most wine geeks call 'rustic'---which means it's deeply colored, boldly flavored and might bite your tongue off with tannin.

To me, Lagrein is reminiscent of an old style Mendocino Petite Sirah, inky black, tart and astringent, loaded with scratchy tannins and black pepper, but also spicy and tangy and rich in brambly berry flavors.

One you might be able to find is one I recently tried: the Kellerei Tramin Lagrein Alto Adige DOC 2008 (imported by Winebow/LoCascio). It's not pricy, it's a great example of the variety and the region, and it is an altogether impressive wine.

While it's common knowledge amongst wine geeks that the basic co-op doesn't tend to make outstanding wines, you automatically can find many exceptions to the rule. Kellerei Tramin is one of the best exceptions, since it is headed by the estimable Willi Sturz, a 2004 Tre Bicchieri Winemaker of the Year, and one of the most dynamic and talented of northern Italian Sudtirol winemakers.

This Lagrein is a blend of several vineyards, so consider it a good representative of what Lagrein should be...which is, dark and inky black, tart with sour cherries, astringent with barely managed tannins, herbal, black pepper, and lean, tart puckery berry fruit. And for me there is always that hallmark flavor of deep roasted coffee. Maybe even a hint of tobacco that you used to be able to buy for pipe smoking, the black. damp, clumpy, aromatic stuff that tamped so well in the pipe and smelled like a damp forest floor---which may sound terrible to you but brings back tremendous Proustian memories for me.

And it can be a great food wine too. Last night, by popular request, I served the extended family (four generations) my thrown-together pasta sauce that became a favorite, sort of a weird puttanesca loaded down with way too many kalamata olives and capers and onions and garlic and spicy red peppers, simmered for a couple of days. The Lagrein was perfect with the pasta sauce. Bold flavor met bold flavor, and they got along just fine with each other!

So if you're looking for something a little out of the ordinary to handle your wine jones, and you like your reds big and bold, give Lagrein a try. Specifically the Kellerei Tramin Lagrein; you can't go wrong with that one.

[David M. Bueker]

So if you're looking for something a little out of the ordinary to handle your wine jones, and you like your reds big and bold, give Lagrein a try. Specifically the Kellerei Tramin Lagrein; you can't go wrong with that one.

Isn't this the point where the lawyers chime in about all the potential side effects?

Thanks for the interesting note Hoke. I have not yet ventured into Lagrein, but you may have given me a reason to do so.

Hoke, thanks for the helpful post. I haven't tried the Traminer Lagrein. Other coops in the region also make good Lagrein though. I had good ones from Gries and from Muri Gries on my vacation there last September. They usually produce a basic range, a mid range, and a prestige / reserve range. Unfortunately, the presitge wines (which cost around 20€) tend to made with noticable influence from new wood. Thus, I recommend trying the mid range wines, which for around 10€ or so, deliver classic Lagrein flavor in its pure form, and go very well with all sorts of food. 2007 is a great vintage for Südtirol btw.

Have you tried the Nussbaumer Gewürztraminer from Kellerei Tramin? Quite something...

Peter

simmered for a couple of days...

How literally do you mean this? Is there a point at which you feel there are diminishing returns to the extra simmering? I ask because I have been known to cook things very slowly and reduce down similar tomato sauces for quite a while (although usually measured in hours not days). But sometimes I ask myself if the technique is just becoming a superstition and how much added flavor I am really getting from each extra time increment.

I suppose one way to solve this question would be to set up a kitchen full of pots with sauces simmered for different amounts of time and then taste the results. But am not sure if I'm anal enough to do that. Yet.

To add to what Rahsaan says: Thomas Keller (of French Laundry fame) was talking about cooking on WNYC the other day and mentioned that most tomato sauces should not be simmered for lengthy periods. The exception was when you have some meat that you are trying to break down for flavor extraction. Thought that was interesting in the context of all the old Italian-Americans I grew up around.

most tomato sauces should not be simmered for lengthy periods...

That is interesting. So I take it Keller was not just saying that lengthy simmering doesn't necessarily help but that it might actually hurt? Why did he say it should not be simmered so long?

Rahsaan, all I can say is long experience with this pasta sauce (with comments from my wife and others) has convinced me this sauce is a 'best-next-day' project.

With most sauces, it is definitely a fix and serve situation, but over the years I've gravitated toward this---let's call it double-simmering---approach with this particular pasta. It concentrates the tomato flavor wonderfully, and infuses the kalamata flavor with extra intensity. [I don't tell anyone but my wife about the anchovy paste I add in, as that might get a "Ewww" from other family members.] Oh, and I add large chunked fresh Roma tomatoes about an hour or so before finishing the sauce; adds an extra texture and little bursts of sweeter tomato flavor to the simmer-concentrated tomato sauce.

In all honesty, I have to say that this sauce sounds more structured and intentional than it is...rather than a recipe, it's something that I just threw together initially, then tinkered around with afterwards, and just kept creating on demand from family---particularly one daughter, and now her four grandchildren.

Rahsaan, all I can say is long experience with this pasta sauce (with comments from my wife and others) has convinced me this sauce is a 'best-next-day' project..

Oh, I can see that. There are definitely differences as things settle overnight. I was just wondering about the literal hours simmering. But I guess we'll have to wait for Joe to enlighten us on that!

Hoke, thanks for the helpful post. I haven't tried the Traminer Lagrein. Other coops in the region also make good Lagrein though. I had good ones from Gries and from Muri Gries on my vacation there last September. They usually produce a basic range, a mid range, and a prestige / reserve range. Unfortunately, the presitge wines (which cost around 20€) tend to made with noticable influence from new wood. Thus, I recommend trying the mid range wines, which for around 10€ or so, deliver classic Lagrein flavor in its pure form, and go very well with all sorts of food. 2007 is a great vintage for Südtirol btw.

Have you tried the Nussbaumer Gewürztraminer from Kellerei Tramin? Quite something...

Peter

Thanks for the additional data, Peter (And, by the way, good to see you pop up occasionally!).

Nope, haven't tried the Nussbaumer. Haven't seen it around here.

I believe the Alto Adige and Austria give the lie to the old adage about co-ops being mundane...or rather, provide a great many exceptions. I can see why many of the co-ops get that rep, yes, but there seems to be something in the nature of the Austria/Northern Italian areas that dictates that even in co-ops high standards of quality and distinctive winemaking still apply. For instance, I'd happily drink Domaine Wachau and Kellerei Tramin wines anytime they are offered, and I hold other co-ops, such as the Sanct Valentin, up as avatars of excellent wine.

I sincerely wish more of the Alto Adige/Sudtirol wines were available here. There is a precision, a depth and intensity of flavor, a clarity, in these wines that is impressive to the extreme. Must be that clear mountain air mixed with German intensity and tempered by Italian romanza!