Nusserhof is one of the most extraordinary wine farms in Italy. You’ve heard of “urban” winemaking? Well, this is the purest and perhaps most extreme example there is: The Mayr family has farmed the same land in Bolzano since the late-1700s, but while other farms were once their neighbors, now a modern city—the provincial capital—has literally grown up around their 2.5-hectare vineyard and family home.
High-speed trains zip past the vineyard’s eastern border; the farm’s walnut trees (for which the winery is named) were cut down to make way for a bike path; but still, Heinrich and Elda Mayr organically farm the local Lagrein grape and make what is arguably the greatest expression of the variety currently available. This will no doubt be a familiar label to many, as Nusserhof is the kind of singular producer we delight in featuring on SommSelect. You’ve seen this wine before, and you’ll see it again, because it is such a uniquely delicious snapshot of a place—namely, the still-verdant, German-speaking Alto Adige, or Südtirol (South Tyrol). Grown in the shadow of the Alps and Dolomites, Nusserhof’s Lagrein is always a fascinating mash-up of sensations: a hint of Côte-Rôtie here, some Right Bank Bordeaux there, a little Jura/Burgundy Pinot Noir for good measure…then the elderberry fruit and meaty bass notes of Lagrein. It stands among the greatest red wines of Northern Italy, so if you haven’t tried it before, don’t miss this chance!
If you didn’t think Lagrein could elicit such rapturous praise, well, you’re not alone: The producers of the Alto Adige traditionally viewed the grape as best for rosé wines, which, because of the variety’s deep hue, turned out an especially dark shade of magenta-tinted pink. Both Lagrein the region’s other noteworthy native, Schiava, have only recently come into vogue; for a long time, producers in both the Alto Adige and neighboring Trentino, who grow most of their red grapes on the alluvial plains of the Adige River, looked to the “Bordeaux” varieties when trying to craft red wines of distinction.
Increasingly, though, Lagrein has made inroads. I sold a ton of it in the early 2000s at Babbo in New York City, especially to people who preferred the textural richness and soft contours of American reds. Dark-fruited and dense, though not especially tannic, Lagrein can produce some incredibly luscious, inky reds, but Nusserhof’s is never that kind of wine—it has density without an overabundance of extract, giving it power but also vibrancy in the manner of great Northern Rhône Syrahs. Their Lagrein grows in the sandy gravel of Bolzano, in that vineyard smack in the middle of a city—but to taste it is to traverse a cool Alpine forest full of wild berries, herbs, and underbrush.
All farming on the Nusserhof property is Certified Organic, and includes not just the local grapes but lots of vegetables and fruit trees. For today’s wine, which is the flagship of a lineup that includes bottlings from the other local varieties Teroldego, Schiava, and the rare Blaterle, all grapes were hand-harvested before a native-yeast fermentation in stainless steel. This wine spends at least two years aging in large oak barrels, and a good two years in bottle afterward, before it is released to the public. Having done so much of the aging for you, the Mayrs nevertheless continue to release it at a reasonable price, despite its ever-growing notoriety and minuscule production. You simply do not see the wines on many retail shelves or wine lists; in the US, they are tightly “allocated” bottlings that arrive and disappear in an instant.
In the glass, the 2012 Nusserhof Lagrein Riserva bears a striking resemblance—aromatically and visually—to the great wines of the northern Rhône Valley, particularly Cornas. It is a luminous ruby in the glass with magenta highlights, deep but not nearly as pitch-black as some Lagrein gets. The aromas are a mix of black and red fruits, from blackberries to strawberries to cranberries, with lots of woodsy herb notes: wild sage, fresh lavender, purple basil. It is just over medium-bodied, leaning more toward the freshness and bounce of Côte-Rôtie than the meaty chunk of Cornas, there are also some black olive/Turkish coffee notes pulling you southward. As it has enjoyed a pretty long maturation already, its cocoa powder tannins are integrating nicely. This isn’t even at mid-life yet, in my opinion, so if serving now, give it 30-60 minutes in a decanter before serving in Burgundy stems at 60-65 degrees. Whenever I see this wine, I recall my last time in the Alto Adige, when, immediately after entering a small stube outside Bolzano, I was greeted by the largest pile of fresh Porcinis I’d ever seen. I’ve attempted to capture part of that scene with the attached recipe. Try it with this wine and recreate it for yourself!
