The new 2019 Pinot Nero Riserva Vigna Das Langefeld was officially presented to the public in 2023. With this wine, the Pfitscher family celebrates the idea and the will to create a wine perfectly expressing both a wine-growing area and an identity. The 2019 Pinot Nero Riserva Vigna Das Langefeld is a superb vintage, and represents the result of careful harvesting of the grapes and their gentle and meticulous processing in the wine cellar.
The elegant and distinctive Vigna Das Langefeld is a Pinot Noir with a very unique identity. To begin with, it displays a refreshing bouquet of forest berries, undergrowth, and mild smokey scents. On the palate, it unfolds a rich and multi-layered structure with satiny, especially long-lasting tannins. The Vigna Das Langefeld embodies the style and signature of the Pfitscher family as well as the elegant robustness you would expect of a Pinot Noir.
During the wine-tasting, it was interesting and delightful to discover how this new Pinot Nero Riserva successfully combines typicity and innovation. Eros Teboni – the 2018 WSA Best Sommelier of the World – who conducted this tasting together with the Pfitscher family, explains: "The Vigna Das Langefeld has an elegant and modern style, but one which firmly reflects the typicity of Alto Adige wines. In other interpretations of this variety of grape, one sometimes finds rustic characteristics: But in the case of this wine, elegance and liveliness are the predominant notes. It's a Pinot Noir with a pronounced identity and expansive personality – produced with great effort and with considerable attention to details."
A project launched in 2013 on the initiative of the entire Pfitscher family but whose origins can be found in the ideas and the will of Klaus Pfitscher. Back in 1984, at the age of 24, he had recognized the potential of this particular terrain and decided to plant a high density per acre of Burgundy Pinot Noir clones. "When planting this vineyard in 1984, I was convinced that it would develop into something tremendous. This wine is the fulfillment of a dream,", says Klaus. Together with his father, Hannes Pfitscher – enologist and cellarmaster – now cares for these wines with a passion all his own. As he himself says: "We all are constantly striving for perfection. The age of the grapevines, the microclimate of Glen, and the organic cultivation techniques we employ all form the foundation for a wine boasting a profound depth as well as high degree of elegance and finesse. We are indeed very proud of this wine."
The Vigna Das Langefeld thus combines the past and the present of a family and of a wine region.
"Das Langefeld" is a small parcel of land and represents one of the highest-altitude and oldest Pinot Noir vineyards in Alto Adige. It is located in the MGA (specific area officially defined within the production zone of DOC Alto Adige) of Gleno, above the village of Montagna, at an elevation of approx. 500 meters above the sea-level. Together with Mazzon, this wine-growing area is without doubt one of the most-famous and most-respected in all Italy for this variety of grape. Like all vineyards belonging to the Pfitscher family, this parcel, too, is only 4,000 sq. meters in size and is cultivated according to stringent organic principles. The vineyard has a western orientation and is characterized by deep soils rich in clays and limestone. The Guyot training system allows a high planting density of about 8,000 grapevines per hectare.
This wine is the result of careful harvesting during which a low quantity of healthy, fully-ripe grapes are hand-picked. The grapes (with their stems still largely intact) are then subjected to two days of cold maceration and about 14 days of spontaneous fermentation. Following another 12 months of maturation in barrique, the wine is then allowed to rest and age for another six months in a 10-hectoliter oak barrel and then for 30 months in the bottle. The wine is bottled without fining and filtration.
The bottles of 2019 Pinot Nero Riserva Vigna Das Langefeld are individually wrapped in tissue paper. With their clean and modern packaging perfectly matching the image of the winery, the bottles are presented in an elegant wooden crate.
This new flagship wine was produced in a limited edition of only 1,296 individually numbered bottles, and is available for purchase starting in November of 2023.
