Lageder ‘Krafuss’ Pinot Noir and Italian style flank steak

Alois Lageder's biodynamically farmed Alto Adige vineyards

Biodynamically grown wine, according to Italy’s Alois Lageder, yields “the purest possible expression of terroir.” And speaking like a true terroirist, he contends that the future of wine “can’t be seen to lie in still more technology,” but must “rely on a true sensibility to the laws of nature.”

For many years, among most Italian winemakers, Lageder was known for the restrained, finely chiseled qualities of his wines. For instance, whereas most of Italy’s Pinot Grigios are very soft, easy, fruity wines, Lageder’s are always lean, linear, minerally and unrepentantly sharp. Like comparing a well matured, female, long distance Alpine bicyclist with a softer skinned teenage girl with baby fat and allergy to work and manners. Both are perfectly fine, of course; just one more serious than the other.


Clemens and Alois Lageder


It is this combination of constraint and pent-up terroir that one definitely tastes in the 2004 Lageder Krafuss Pinot Noir: bursting from the seams with a Pinot nose of wild strawberry, white rose petal and peppery perfumes; before tucking itself in on the palate with a light-medium body and teasingly sweet, spiced berry fruitiness, little tart sensations popping up in the middle to lighten the cinnamony oak and firm but smoothly finished tannins.

The lithe and limber Lageder may not exactly be for you if you are a lover of deep, breathy, earth-mother styles of Pinot Noir grown in France’s Bourgogne, or the well nourished, aggressive, fuller bodied styles of California and much of Oregon. But as Pinot Noirs go, the Lageder is still very pure, very sexy, even if not exactly cheap ($35-$40)  If you can get down with that, I can promise you a very good time indeed.



In respect to cuisine: Even more than other Pinot Noirs, Lageder’s requires leaner cuts of red meat; ideally, slow cooked or braised to develop some caramelized, high amino acid sensations (i.e., umami) to play up the wine’s intrinsic varietal sweetness.  

In that case, flank steak – also known as London Broil (arrachera to Mexicans, bavette to the French) – is ideal, especially when marinated to tenderize its sweet beefy flavor. Here’s a simple but showy recipe for an olive oil, red wine vinegar (balancing the Lageder's natural acidity) and garlic inflected Italian Party Flank Steak, which you can adjust to your liking (by rolling, for instance, with chard or spinach, or with flat slivers of Parmigiano Reggiano inside, and buying the steaks pre-sliced at your nearest carniceria or Asian market rather than butterflying it yourself).


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