Personalities

Extraordinary Lageder
«Magnum» №6-7(9) 2006

The medieval Cason Hirschprunn mansion is full of life.

Hundreds of guests from all over the world have come for a famed Summa tasting, Alois Lageder annual event. It is so easy to recognize a stylish Italian winemaker from Alto Adige. Tall height, sky blue eyes and welcoming smile instantly make him stand out from the crowd. Yet, the same can be said about his ideas, estates and wines. Like Lageder himself, they are extraordinary.

I’ve never before met winemakers whose work harmoniously combines approaches of Bordeaux and Burgundy, ideas of Old and New World, traditional and avant-garde thinking, designer’s and deeply natural interpretations of winemaking. Alois Lageder is the first. He has two estates as well as a dozen of vineyards in various parts of the Adige Valley. He works with twenty varieties, among which are popular international (Chardonnay, Merlot, Cabernet, Pinot Noir), Italian (Pinot Grigio, Pinot Bianco) and original local (Schiava, Lagrein) grapes. He makes about thirty wines — from straightforward varietal wines to conceptual crus and Bordeaux-inspired blends. The Lageder family has been making wine for over 150 years, but it seems that only Alois could unite the history and the future of the family business. He has a fine understanding of nature and practices biodynamics. His Tor Lowengang winery is an incredible alloy of natural environment, cutting edge design and nature-friendly technologies. His estates constantly draw people of art and serve as grounds for lots of their projects. It all happens in a lovely place called Magre that is hidden at the foothills of rocky mountains of the South Tyrol. If you want to get inspired, this is the place to be.

Alois and I move to the vinoteque in order to talk away from the noise of the tasting. Apart from Alois Lageder wines, it features classic examples of world winemaking. Lageder’s idea is that vinoteque should serve not only as a point of acquaintance with wines, but be an ideal place for meetings and exchanges. The name Vinoteque im paradeis is chosen accordingly. Our conversation flows easily.

– I think it’s probably my own character. It annoys me to do always the same, to do what the others are doing. I always try to see where revolution can begin. It interests me to look for new ways. Let’s take winemaking. Many think it is continuation of an old tradition, but tradition is not something you have to keep. I think it is something from what you have to start. Many times tradition is seen as the key. Yes, it is important and useful, but you have to start from what your parents, your family achieved and go on.

Why do I do things differently from others? First of all, because it’s my own wish, and secondly, I think it is also a need because the world is changing. You cannot do always the same. When I decided to stop taking part in Vinitaly, it was the period when all producers of Alto Adige started to take part. It was completely against the trend. They all thought that I was if not completely mad, than a man who’d lost any business sense. Now I think they have understood me because I go my way, and I like it.

– The most important is definitely the territory. Soil, climate, exposition, microworld, that is animals and everything that lives around. Of course the person is important because he has to understand all this and then try to make a wine. But without right terroir you cannot make great wines. One producer understands his terroir and the other probably doesn’t, probably follows something what other producers are doing. But knowledge of terroir has to be our objective.

Here in Alto Adige the situation is exciting because we have many different kinds of soil — chalk, clay, dark red soil, volcanic soil alluvial soil with glacial deposits... And the climate has big Mediterranean influence. Bolzano is known as one of the hottest cities in Italy in summertime, but in the night temperature drops down, so we have great temperature difference. That is very important to keep the freshness, the clean fruit. We grow grapes from 250 to 800-900 meters above sea level, so there is climate change again, and we have different exposures.

– Our ancestors started to experiment with all the different grape varieties known in that time150 years ago. They grew Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris, Cabernet, Merlot, Riesling and others. In all these years we were able to find right grape variety for each site. I think this is our big advantage. Definitely, you need time to understand the soil and the vines. Today you can make technical analysis, but it’s theory. Practice is different. You need to wait 10 years or more for the vine to bring the best quality, then you have to make the wine and wait to see how the wine is developing. Twenty years is nothing for a wine. You really need time to say this is the correct grape variety for the site. In Alto Adige we have this knowledge, know-how of 150 years. This is the reason why we have so many different varieties today. We underline the aspect that the so called fashionable varieties — Chardonnay, Sauvignon and Pinot Noir appeared in many areas only a few years ago, but here they have long history.

– Wine is definitely getting its character from soil. To be able to extract even more terroir into the wine we started to grow our vineyards biodynamic. In fact, we started 15 years ago, but I wasn’t able to do it 100 percent because I hadn’t right people and know-how. Finally 2 years ago I was able to gather good staff around me, found a good consultant, and we’ve been converting all the vineyards to biodynamic. Now we are doing 40 of 63 hectares biodynamically. Probably next year we will complete this conversion. With biodynamic approach you definitely can produce better wines. Vines become more resistant, they build physiological balance, and the roots get much deeper. When the roots are quite deep, they bring into the grape typicity of the terroir, of the particular soil. With biodynamic farming we are taking advantage of astral influences. Biodynamics is the future of viticulture. Winegrowers have more and more problems with disease. There is also climate change. When a plant is really healthy, it is able to adapt better to new conditions. Being organic is the first step, but with biodynamic we can take advantage of the natural forces.