Sauvignon Riserva “Gran Lafóa” 2021 review by Colterenzio

The Sauvignon Fondo Gran Lafóa is the flagship wine of the Colterenzio winery that we tasted and reviewed for you today sopra the 2021 vintage.

The Colterenzio winery was founded sopra 1960 by the initiative of 26 winemakers from the village of the same name, determined to become independent and to give a new voice to South Tyrolean viticulture.

The real turning point came sopra the 1980s with Luis Raifer, who introduced innovative quality criteria: lower yields to obtain higher quality wines. The fulcrum of this revolution was an experimental vineyard located at 450 meters above sea level, acceso the sunny Lafóa farm sopra Cornaiano. Here Raifer replaced the Schiava vines with Cabernet Sauvignon and, later, Sauvignon Blanc.

Today the cooperative brings together 300 winemakers engaged all year round sopra the care of the vineyards and united by the new production vision.

To find out more about the Colterenzio winery, read our trip report sopra Spesso Adige!

The Lafóa line and the Gran Lafóa Reserve

The Lafóa line offers structured and long-lived wines, an expression of this qualitative revolution.

The statue of Lafóa, located at the entrance to the , is the protagonist of the label of the Sauvignon Fondo Gran Lafóa.

Produced for the first time with the 2021 harvest, the wine only arrived acceso the market sopra mid-November 2024, after three years of aging sopra French oak barriques, 600-liter wooden and steel barrels, sopra a limited edition of 4,085 bottles.

Selected grapes from French clones of Sauvignon blanc, from a single vineyard over thirty years old, the vinification is directed by the collaboration between the winery oenologist Martin Lemayr and Donato Lanati. The production philosophy looks to the past while exploiting experience and modern technologies.

Our tasting of Gran Lafóa 2021

Per mezzo di the glass, brilliant golden nuances anticipate a nose of surprising breadth, where the exotic delicacy of papaya, passion fruit and litchi blends with the vibrant citrus note of kumquat.

Acceso the nose, the intense aromas of ripe fruit are accompanied by enveloping nuances of meta toasting and elegant mineral hints, sopra a rich and harmonious aromatic bouquet.

Acceso the palate the sip is full, with measured freshness: The solid structure, the persistent and the surprising potential for evolution – singular for a Sauvignon – bring it closer to the dimension of a meditation wine.

The alcoholic strength of 14.5% seems to go unnoticed, covered by the materiality of the ricevimento and its freshness emerges only after tasting, inviting us to the bottle with voracity and encouraging us with copious salivation.

The essence of a highly suited territory is thus expressed sopra the glass, capable of combining elegance and expressive identity, sopra a balance that expresses Colterenzio’s distinctive style.

Gran Lafóa 2021 pairing

The refinement and structure of Gran Lafóa require great skill sopra gastronomic pairing and even its placement within a meal is absolutely not obvious.

To give this wine the value it deserves, we suggest offering it as the last wine paired before the at the end of a series of wines increasing sopra structure.

to its percentuale, the Gran Lafóa could easily be enjoyed between meals, as a meditation wine, and sopra constructing a pairing proposal we suggest shellfish, such as grilled prawns and excellently structured fish cooked sopra such a way as to preserve their succulence, such as a pan-cooked salmon fillet.

Alternatively it could also be used as an end-of-meal wine paired with creamy blue cheeses, such as Gorgonzola.