Bergmannhof, Lagrein Riserva “Karl” Supply

Bergmannhof, Lagrein Riserva “Karl”

Outside of a few hyper-premium regions, the path to cult fame is a slow one—until it isn’t. And I believe the remarkable wines of Bergmannhof are well on their way to the same buzzworthy plane that Alto Adige legends Nusserhof and Foradori already occupy. After personally visiting last year, I’m convinced these are some of the most exciting artisanal reds of Northern Italy…all of Italy…all of Europe—and I cannot wait to prove it once more with Bergmannhof’s highly limited, five-year-old Lagrein Riserva.

Certified Organic fruit, manual craftsmanship, and a long barrel aging regimen ensure your Bordeaux stem will be filled with a strikingly powerful and fathomlessly deep red. Unfortunately, its production barely creeps beyond 200 cases and I was told a tenth of that made it overseas. Do you see why my “cult radar” is flashing? While I hope these beauties don’t see a 2-3x price increase, and/or become methodically rationed out to accounts like some dystopian commodity, that’s the unfortunate side of the wine business: As long as the market bears it and demand keeps sizzling, those prices have no ceiling. In the meantime, I’ll be stocking up! Free shipping on six.

With just a few hectares of vines on the outskirts of Bolzano, the Pichlers have been proud grape growers in their locale of Eppan since the mid-1800s. Wine bearing the “Bergmannhof” name, however, didn’t come until 1978 when Karl and Josef Pichler, fueled by their family’s generations-deep expertise, began crafting their own wines. Today, Karl’s grandson, Johannes, overseas their small-scale operation with fastidious detail via manual vineyard work, organic certification, and the minimal output of emissions as a member of the “Climate Neutral Alliance.”

When the Südtirol was part of Austria, it was considered part of the “warm” south and therefore better suited to red wine production. The capital city, Bolzano, which sits in a basin at the confluence of the Isarco and Adige Rivers, gets very hot in the summer, and warm air currents rush up through the Adige Valley from Lake Garda to the south. The most-planted red grape here is Schiava (also known as Vernatsch and Trollinger), and it’s long been the “workhorse” of the Italian Dolomites. But there’s another grape of local legend, too, and it’s Lagrein. 

I am, for what it’s worth, a Lagrein fanatic. The producers of the Alto Adige traditionally viewed the grape as best for rosé wines, which, because of its deep hue, turned out an especially dark shade of orangish pink. Both Lagrein and the region’s other noteworthy native, Schiava, have only recently come into vogue. Increasingly, though, Lagrein has made inroads. Dark-fruited and dense, though not overly tannic, Lagrein can produce some incredibly luscious, full-throttle reds, but Bergmannhof is not 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. 

Bergmannhof and its organic estate vines are located a short drive west of Bolzano, the central hub of South Tyrol. For their 2018 Lagrein Riserva, grapes were hand-farmed and -picked from younger vines in the second week of September. Fermentation and three weeks of skin contact occurred in large wooden vats before the resulting wine was transferred into oak tonneaux for 16 months of patient maturation. It was bottled unfined and unfiltered in the Summer of 2020, and this parcel continued resting for two additional years prior to leaving their cellar.

This 2018 Lagrein Riserva is an immeasurably deep and titanic-sized red that glides across the palate like a fiberglass power cruiser. In a Bordeaux stem, this dark, inky beast unloads dense aromas of cassis, Damson plum, smoked purple flowers, pencil lead, licorice, black raspberry, espresso, and Alpine herbs. Do not be intimated! The palate reveals fine-grained tannins and subtle bursts of acidity that create a wonderfully lifted, dynamic finish full of savory fireworks. This wine is a masterclass in shapeshifting and deserves/demands a long decant and slow enjoyment over 5+ hours. Any unopened bottles will keep evolving for another 5-10 years.