Nusserhof, Heinrich Mayr, Lagrein Riserva

Bolzano is a mid-sized industrial city that sits in a narrow valley in the Dolomites, 45 minutes south of the Austrian border in Italy’s Alto Adige region. This is Deutsch-speaking, lederhosen-wearing Italy, and the local culture and snow capped geography feels far more like Austria than it does Italy. Bolzano (Bozen to locals) is a mix of shipping warehouses, cold war-era municipal structures, and multi-story housing projects. Upon exiting the city’s utilitarian train station and making your way past numerous warehouses en route to Heinrich and Elda Mayr’s front door, you wouldn’t be faulted for doubting your proximity to a famous vineyard. But suddenly you round a corner and before you lies a breathtaking and verdant biodynamic farm with ancient stone walls, chirping birds, wildflowers, and rows of vines and fruit trees. This is Heinrich and Elda’s farm and walking through their front door is not unlike stepping through a portal into the past. Nearly everything remains as it was 400