Saturday Night Wine: San Pietro Lagrein
I love Lagrein, especially in the middle of the summer. When it’s sticky and sweaty out, I imagine that I’m drinking this wine after a long hike through the Dolomites in Alto Adige, where this wine hails from. Instead, I had this wine on Saturday night at Sorella, a wine bar on Allen Street that specializes in Northern Italian food and wine. This 2006 San Pietro Lagrein had the earthy/floral nose and refreshing minerality that make this varietal so appealing – and so versatile with a wide range of food. The five of us ordered everything from anchovies to skirt steak, and the wine somehow worked with all of it. Versatility is an underrated virtue in wine, and this Lagrein (which retails for about $15), would be a good value go-to bottle for anyone’s cellar.
As someone who imbibed with you at Sorella that night, I second the Lagrein emotion. I had a nice Alois Lageder Lagrein rose last week that we enjoyed with a simple summer pasta with a mix of raw and roasted cherry tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil, followed by a simple salad. It was delicious!
[...] cuisine that makes winter bearable. I’ve already written about a few of these, like Lagrein from northern Italy and Germany’s Dornfelder. Another old favorite — and one of the [...]
[...] lighter, higher acidity wines, like Beaujolais, a lot of Loire reds, Pinot Noir, Dornfelder, Lagrein, Zweigelt and the like, really shine when they’re cool, as in 60 degrees or so. More complex [...]