Light Red Italian 2023 Pranzegg Vino Rosso Leggero

2023 Pranzegg-Martin Gojer "Vino Rosso Leggero" Alto Adige Italy 

Bright acidity, great minerality, superb freshness, light tannins — what else could you want in a late summer wine? Weingut Pranzegg is a small 3.5 hectare family estate nestled in the surrounding mountain foothills of the town of Bozen in Südtirol (AKA Alto Adige), just 50 km south of the Austrian border. The winery has been in the hands of the Gojer family for three generations. Martin took over the estate in 2008 and started the conversion to biodynamic farming straight away; he also stopped selling to the local cooperatives, a bold move in an area where 90% of all grapes are bottled by cooperatives and associated winemaker structures. Everything is done by hand here, and the wines are bottled without fining or filtration, and with minimal doses of sulfur. For Martin, the most important thing is to make ‘living wines’ that are able to express a sense of place.

Here, 90% Vernatsch (Schiava)  and 10 % Lagrein, the two typical Alto Adige grapes used to make those deliciously juicy wines of the region, are treated with such a fine hand that you could conceivably forget all worldly worries with a glass nearby….the Vino Rosso Leggero is something special. The vines for this lightweight red are all about 40 years old and grown on volcanic soil. After a short maceration of the red grapes, the leftover skins of their white wine cuvée is added during fermentation, lending aromatics and a bit of structure. It's a cheeky little number right off the bat, full of cherries, strawberries, and red currents so blatantly ripe and juicy that your mouth can’t help but water.  The name of the game may be little red fruits all the way, but with just a hint of tannins, river stones, and fresh herbal notes to keep things grounded and the finish savory.

Enjoy chilled, with friends, and conjure up your own mountain lake to spend the rest of the summer lazing by.