Alois Lageder, Löwengang 2013 Chardonnay
In Focus, By Richard Sagala
This bottle of Löwengang Chardonnay is of a light gold colour with green highlights.
On the nose, aromas of Golden Delicious apples are supported by caramelized apples, vanilla and poached pears.
On the palate one feels that this is a dry wine endowed with refreshing acidity, generous alcohol and a rather full body weight. This is still a youthful wine where oak flavours and influence stands in front of a good fruit concentration which will, in due time, rebalance everything and will come to the fore. The wine finishes with a signature telling us that quality french oak was used in the process. To compensate this, a pairing with a grilled salmon will help you find immediate pleasure and will persuade you in being patient while the rest of your case of wine will come to a mature fruition. Leave it alone a couple of years and check a bottle from time to time in accompaniment of a (fat) piece of fish.
There is a fresh and dynamic quality to this wine and it got the vote from a group of fifteen wine producers in British Columbia last month where I organized a few tasting sessions and presented it to them for appreciation.
Alois Lageder is an excellent producer of the north of Italy who works in a biodynamic fashion for many years now (Demeter certified) and has a fine offering of wines showing consistent quality and purity of fruit.
The wine sells in Canada for a little more than $50.00 and, although not cheap, this bottle has an excellent quality to price to ratio. This will be followed, in my opinion, in a few years down the road with a superb pleasure over price ratio once it will have gained some more maturity.
To sum it up: Find a place in your cellar for a case.
In Vino Veritas!
Alois Lageder, 2013 Löwengang: 100% Chardonnay, 13% abv
