The Erste+Neue 2017 Alto Adige Lagrein Riserva Puntay (with 10,000 bottles made) is rich and darkly saturated with abundant aromas of dark plum, dried blackberry, rum cake, tilled earth and sweet cherry. This is a soft and succulent wine in terms of mouthfeel that wraps over the palate in ample and generous waves. Pair this wine with spicy chicken curry. Lagrein likes to grow at slightly lower elevations (at 250 to 350 meters above sea level in this case) where temperatures are a bit warmer. This site consists of sandy limestone and clay.

Showing a dense and inky appearance, the 2016 Alto Adige Lagrein Riserva Puntay offers all the abundance, fruity generosity and exuberance you are looking for in this Italian native grape, along with the precision, sharpness and focus you can expect of the 2016 vintage. Lagrein can deceive you in terms of structure, coming off as a full-bodied wine but offering more simplicity and less overall persistence in the mouth. It's a top-heavy grape that gives its all within the first moments of the drinking experience. However, this expression succeeds in pushing those boundaries much further than most. I'd pair it with roast beef and horseradish. Some 6,000 bottles were made.

This is an inky black and impenetrable wine in terms of appearance. The 2015 Alto Adige Lagrein Riserva Puntay is a robust expression with dark fruit aromas that peel back in slow and lazy succession. This is a slow-moving wine that never reaches any specific point of complexity, but it does offer steady and consistent fruit tones along the way. Rather than depth, this wine offers broad and easy appeal with dark cherry, blackberry and ripe plum. The tannins are soft, and the wine delivers a loose, velvety texture. Drink this Riserva within the next few years while the primary fruit is intact. Some 80% of the mass is aged in barrique for 16 months. Bottle production is 6,000 units strong.

Aged for 12 months in neutral oak (both barrique and botte grande), the 2013 Alto Adige Lagrein Riserva Puntay opens to a smoky and savory bouquet that sees dark layers of dried fruit, plum, blackberry, leather and smoked meat. The wine walks a fine line between rusticity and elegance and its unique personality is derived precisely from this fact. That balance of opposites is backed by a long and satisfying sense of persistence.

The 2010 Alto Adige Lagrein Riserva Puntay performs nicely from the outset, thanks to its aromas of dark fruit, tobacco, plum, cola, hummus, balsam herb and eucalyptus leaf. The mouthfeel is easy and compact with a tight, silky texture and medium density.