Alto Adige (Gries)

Lagrein's home is not the Alpine slopes but the valley floor at Bolzano, and within it the district of Gries — the gravel fan on the west bank of the Talvera, where the city's summer heat and the porphyry-and-sand soils give the grape a depth it reaches nowhere else. The wine is nearly opaque purple-black with a violet rim, yet it is not a heavyweight: brisk acidity and moderate, velvety tannin carry blackberry, damson and dark cherry to a finish of bitter chocolate and dry earth. The same grape has long been drawn pale off its skins as Lagrein Kretzer, one of the Alps' oldest rosés.