The wines from Alois Lageder’s Terra Alpina project are part of the winery’s collaboration with growers in neighboring communities to produce excellent wines representative of the Dolomite region. In the foothills of the Dolomite Range, cool Alpine and warm Mediterranean influences meet to create fresh, precise, and expressive wines with a character influenced by the prevalent Dolomitic limestone. Lageder’s holistic understanding of nature and the winery's centuries of experience help to ensure the selection of the best terroirs and the optimal exploitation of the special climatic, geological, and topographic conditions in the area.

In creating a new Chardonnay within the Terra Alpina line of wines, Alois Lageder continues to showcase the fresh terroir of the Dolomite region.  Doing so also allowed them to make an organic wine by partnering with winegrowers who are committed to certified organic farming.  Alois Lageder Chardonnay has always been known for its precision and finesse and the Terra Alpina Chardonnay is no exception to this rule.  

The wines from Alois Lageder’s Terra Alpina project are part of the winery’s collaboration with growers in neighboring communities to produce excellent wines representative of the Dolomite region. In the foothills of the Dolomite Range, cool Alpine and warm Mediterranean influences meet to create fresh, precise, and expressive wines with a character influenced by the prevalent Dolomitic limestone. Lageder’s holistic understanding of nature and the winery's centuries of experience help to ensure the selection of the best terroirs and the optimal exploitation of the special climatic, geological, and topographic conditions in the area.

This cross between Riesling and Madeleine Royale, which was created by the Swiss botanist and oenologist Hermann Müller from the Swiss Canton of Thurgau, finds ideal conditions in the cool climate of Valle Isarco and at elevations over 700 meters (2.300 feet). Sandy, gravelly and schist soils and the influence of the Alpine microclimate also contribute to the slow ripening of this variety.

Schiava is a grape variety native to Alto Adige that, until the 1970s, was central to winemaking in the region.  For this reason, the region was more well-known for its red wines than white wines for decades.  Historically known for producing light-bodied and lighter-colored wines, in recent years Lageder has started experimenting with Schiava to push the boundaries of the varietal's potential, creating wines with increased levels of concentration, weight and structure, while maintaining balance, elegance and freshness.  

The name Mimuèt comes from the Latin expression meaning "to my taste'. Convinced that Alto Adige offers the best conditions for Pinot Noir, Lageder devotes special attention to this grape variety with the objective of producing wines with precision, lightness and a delicate structure. To do that, they experiment with cooler sites and focus on optimum timing for the grape harvest so that the grapes are still crisp and lively. That ensures the Alois Lageder Mimuèt Pinot Noir has the requisiite freshness and liveliness. Demeter Certified Biodynamic

Porer Pinot Grigio is part of the Component line from Alois Lageder.  Wine is an interplay between different components. With great attention to detail, we study the individual components in the vineyard and the cellar, combine them and create the conditions that allow these wines to develop. "Porer" is a winemaker’s wine, all about the joy of experimenting and bringing different techniques together to produce a fascinatingly complex product. One part of the grapes was pressed immediately after harvest to keep the fresh flavors and aromas. Another part was kept on the skins for 15 hours and the third part was in contact with stems and skins for about one year, absorbing color, some tannin, and other rich flavor components.

Pinot Bianco is a grape that has been cultivated in Alto Adige since the mid-19^th century and is one of the main wine varieties cultivated in the region today.  Fruit from four distinctive vineyard sites is used to produce "Versalto," the highest expression of Pinot Bianco in the winery's Compositions line.  The wine is a product of the interaction of geological, microclimatic and cultural contrasts as each of the vineyards have differences in soil type, altitude, climate and trellis systems.  The Aspmair and Leisterhof vineyards are both near Merano in Northern Alto Adige, Palma is in Penone on the western side of the valley, and Uccelli is in Pochi, located on the eastern side of the valley. Spontaneous fermentation took place in large cask and the wine was then aged in oak casks for six months prior to bottling.

The name Gaun dates back to the 17th century and the family of the Barons Gaun, the first owners of the Löwengang estate. In 1934, when Alois III saw the excellent results produced by the Chardonnay grape variety in the dolomitic limestone soil on the Magrè talus cone, he decided to purchase Löwengang. 150 years ago, Chardonnay and other international grape varieties were planted there.  First produced with the 2009 vintage, Gaun is made from Chardonnay from various vineyard sites in the area surrounding Magrè, all of which are grown in soils with high levels of dolomitic limestone. The winery vinifies the vineyard components separately using low intervention techniques and finalizes a blend that conveys the personality and potential of the Chardonnay grape in Alto Adige.  

In the 1930s Manzoni Bianco was created by Prof. Luigi Manzoni, director of the renowned Conegliano Research Center, by crossing Riesling and Pinot Bianco. Its characteristics include loose-berried clusters, thick skins, high acid levels, and lower concentrations of sugar. Those features make Manzoni Bianco attractive for Alto Adige given today’s increasingly extreme weather patterns. Lageder accentuates its flavor profile by leaving the grape juice in contact with the skins for several days.

Alois Lageder’s Löwengang Chardonnay has played a major role not only in the success of the wine estate itself but also in establishing Alto Adige's status as a quality wine region. Beginning with the 1984 vintage, Löwengang Chardonnay became the first white wine from the region to be successfully positioned at an international level. The estate comprises several smaller plots that react differently to the influences of the local weather every year. Lageder does not try to make a uniform product with this wine, but rather responds to annual conditions to make every vintage unique. The name Löwengang derives from a historical residence of the same name in Magrè that has been in the possession of the Lageder family since 1934.

The Krafuss residence, which has survived largely unchanged since the Renaissance, is owned by Roland Riz, Alois Lageder’s father-in-law. Surrounded by vineyards and orchards, the historical building reflects the economic significance that the vineyards in the area above San Michele Appiano enjoyed as early as the Middle Ages. In 1991, the vineyards atop a gentle hill were rehabilitated and planted with Pinot Noir. The combination here of elevation, exposure, soil, microclimate, and good ventilation create a mix that is ideal for Pinot Noir, which is a traditional variety in the area. In 2013, Lageder made the transition to biodynamic working, and now there are again sheep grazing on the edge of the village of Appiano.

In the 1980s, discussions with wine-growers from all over the world such as Robert Mondavi, the famous pioneer of wine-growing in America, and various chateau owners in the Bordeaux region encouraged Alois Lageder to introduce Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot in the form of wire trellis system as a replacement for the traditional Schiava. The result, in 1986, was Alto Adige’s first major vineyard with densely planted Guyot-trained vines – a fact that caused much discussion. This site has traditionally been called "Herz" (German for heart or Cor in Latin) and has given the wine its name.