Wine Spectator - Alois Lageder
...marries tradition and modernity in Italy's mountainous Alto Adige, by Mitch Frank
In 1981, Alois Lageder received a visitor who changed his life. The 31-year-old vintner was working in his family winery in the Alto Adige region of northeastern Italy when Napa Valley icon Robert Mondavi walked into his cellar. Mondavi was visiting wineries troughout his ancestral homeland, and Lageder eagerly drove Mondavi to one of his vineyards, Cor Römigberg, which was planted with Schiava, a local variety that makes the kind of light red wines then popular in the region's traditional markets of Austria and Germany.
Mondavi asked about the training of the vines-they were in the classic pergola style, with a 6-foot-tall trunk. Lageder confidently explained, "The pergola system is the best for Alto Adige."
"You think so?" Mondavi replied. "Have you tried anything else?"
Lageder had not. Alto Adige was a conservative region, and Lageder was the fourth generation to manage his family winery. "We were rooted in tradition, "Lageder says. "It was very hard to change."
