Lagrein

            From looking at its opaque purple color, you wouldn’t guess that this wine comes from the Alpine foothills of far northern Italy. Alto Adige, a region better known for pinot grigio and similar crisp whites, is nearly the only place where Lagrein is found. When grown on heat-trapping floors of mountain valleys, it can produce wines that the New York Times’s Eric Asimov describes as “deliciously plummy, earthy and chewy, dark and full-bodied but not heavy, with a pronounced minerally edge.”

            That’s what he thought of the best bottles of the dozen he tasted for his column. Wish I’d had one of those instead of this one, which was flavorful but flabby. Without balance or the region’s famous minerality, the wine just wasn’t that interesting. Maybe some bottle age would have helped, but I doubt it.

            Food pairing: Guided by the memory of the only other Lagrein I’ve tasted, a superior bottle from Weingut Fritz Kupelweiser, I roasted a pork loin that had been smeared with a Dijon mustard-sour cherry paste and wrapped in very thin sheets of prosciutto. I think this is a good match – the cherry definitely found an echo in the wine – but I’d want to try it again with a less disappointing bottle.