Castel Firmian Lagrein 2023

Lagrein, as always, comes to the glass in deep, impenetrable shades of purple. Flavours and intensity are also deep, dark and inky. This is a grape which calls Trentino-Alto Adige in northeast Italy home and offers a challenge to winemakers with its high tannins. Firm, assertive tannins are a feature of this wine, but they are matched by the intensity of dark fruits and spices. It’s not a battle, it’s a partnership. Black plum, black berries, black cherry, dark spices, briar, ink, dried herb scents offer an unmistakable Italian Lagrein introduction. There’s an undoubted richness to the flavours that follow, matched nicely to layers of savoury leather, earth and smoked meats, but they remain in harmony with yet more layers of pan forte, dark chocolate, and high tone spices to follow. Complex? You bet.

Jeni Port

Wine critic at Winepilot

Jeni Port is one of Australia’s top wine communicators. Based in Melbourne, Jeni created the first wine column in the (then) Sun News-Pictorial before moving over to The Age and becoming that paper’s longest-serving wine writer. Over the years she has written for most Australian wine magazines and these days calls WinePilot home. She is also a Tasting Panel member on the Halliday Wine Companion. She was named Wine Communicator of the Year and Legend of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival in 2014 and in 2018 Legend of the Vine. She is a founding board member of Australian Women In Wine and is the co-deputy chair of Australia’s Wine List of the Year Awards and China’s Wine List of the Year Awards.

Wine writer and critic