Back in April I had the opportunity to meet here in Dubai, Helena Legeder daughter of the visionary Alois, a man which in the middle of 70’s started operating the estate, focusing on quality and innovative methods in the vineyard and cellar. To be honest giving the fact that I knew very well the Estate and biodynamic approach to the wine growing, I had little knowledge of his wines, so I was very excited to meet Helena and taste some of his wines.
The first wine we tasted was the Pinot Grigio Porer and was love at first sip. It’s an unusual Pinot Grigio, with some orange hues in the straw-yellow color, lots of pronounced stone fruit on the nose, dry palate, hints of spices and with lots of minerality.
Finally a Pinot Grigio which can blow your mind, I said to myself. At that point as for everything we love, we tend to go deep in understanding how this Pinot Grigio is made, so I promised Helena that this summer would have been my time to pay a visit in her Lowengang Estate.
On the 27th of August, me, my wife Sandra and my little boy Davide we reached Magre, a small beautiful town, along the wine route between Bolzano and Trento, in the Trentino Alto Adige Region of Italy. First things we do is to go and see their biodynamic vineyards where the outstanding Lowengang Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon are produced.
Here my video-reviews:
Old Cabernet Sauvignon vineyard
After the visit in the vineyards we visit the winery facility and we found out that Alois still experiments a lots with international grape varieties as temperature are rising also in this part of the world, so better also planting grapes which can be suitable for those new temperature which are unusual to the area. Thinking that we are in the norther part of Italy, below the greatest Dolomiti Mountain Range, and so far this is one of the hottest region in Italy.
Video: Barrels in the cantine
After the vineyards we proceed to the tasting room where we were explained the philosophy behind their Pinot Grigio Porer and the other wines produced.
At last I would like to mention another great sustainable initiative of the Alois, which is to replace the screw caps and the aluminium foil which usually goes around the bottle neck (capsula) with just a small piece of paper, and as we always say, a small step towards sustainability, is a big help towards humanity. This however doesn’t means that screw caps are not good, but means that if you going to use natural cork, there is no need to spend money on the other materials.
Helena, Alois and our little somm Davide.
