The Lagaria Pinot Grigio 2015 is sourced from vineyards in the Val Lagarina (Lagarina Valley) in the Venezie district of northwest Italy. You may have noticed that many of the Italian Pinot Grigio on store shelves come from the Alto Adige area of Venezie, the Adige is a large river that runs thru this region and Alto Adige indicates the higher regions of Adige while the Lagaria is sourced from a valley which would make this Pinot Grigio from the lower region. This is a young wine, a young wine has very little aging ability and should be consumed in the first 2 years of release to insure the wine is as fresh as possible. The current vintage is 2016 and a check of the web showed it selling in the $10 to $12 range, but I found the 2015 on sale for less than $7, which is a very good indicator for the wine shop (Binny’s), they knew the time to drink this Pinot Grigio was now and they priced it accordingly, so props to them. Even though this is a young wine Lagaria did age this Pinot Grigio for a few months in stainless steel tanks while “on lees” (bits of the dead yeast and grape residue are left in the tank. Here is a wine term for you “bâtonnage“, that’s when the winery stirs the lees on a regular basis so the lees don’t just sit on the bottom of the tank. It increases to effect the lees have on the flavor of the wine and if stirred often enough can give the wine a creamy texture, every winery has their own take about how often and for how long to perform bâtonnage. The alcohol content is 12.5%.
The color is a pale wheat yellow. The nose is pretty, melon, lemon, pear, apple, orange blossom honey and spring flowers. This is a light, delicate, dry Pinot Grigio with solid acidity and a solid array of flavors. It tastes of a mix of apple, pear, grapefruit, lime, and lemon, the flavors sort of swirl around your palate. The mid-palate brings sour orange, light peach, and kiwi. This is a food wine, so that indicates it has a good dose of acidity, pair this with fancy salads, fish and seafood, actually as I’m writing this I’m thinking a shrimp cocktail would hit the spot.
The Lagaria Pinot Grigio 2015 is a very attractive Italian Pinot Grigio, it is a fine example at full price and is crazy good on sale. It’s well-made, no one flavor stands out it all kind of melds together and the acidity, while abundant does its job and does not bite. I can think of popular, more expensive Pinot Grigio that does not have its acidity this well-managed. Plus, I like a wine where the label tells you exactly what is in the bottle, to me the label says bright, breezy, modern and Italian and that’s what you get.
