2019 Pinot Nero Franz Haas: The Review Of An Elegant Red Wine Full Of Character
One of the certainties of my entire career as a wine taster and writer has always been Franz Haas’ Pinot Noir since I was 22 years old. Today I’m 44.
Each year it is a home run: always precise, clean, and elegant and we are talking about the entry-level product, not Riserva.
Unfortunately, with the death of the legendary Franz Haas, a star of South Tyrolean enology went out, one of the great innovators who started the Copernican revolution of Italian Pinot Noir, bringing it back to its ideal dimension of mountain wine.
Less wood, fewer muscles, more finesse and deepness, more grapes and mountains, and fewer technicalities. This was his great lesson, and it is his legacy. Franz Haas has consistently produced outstanding wines, but he did it without following trends; at most, he created them as a side effect.
Just think about the screw caps: a cross and a delight for many winemakers. There are civil wars and feuds with a medieval flavor over this controversial one. Many believe that they are not suitable for storing great wines, especially reds. They tolerate use with whites, but they would never dream of capping a Pinot Noir with a screw cap.
Franz Haas did not care about these sterile quarrels, and he also put the stelvin cap on his house jewel, Pinot Schweizer, produced only in the best vintages. A full-bodied wine born to evolve and age, not to be drunk after 4 years. The last vintage on the market is 2018. Leave it in the cellar for 15 years if you find it, and you will have a treasure.
How is it produced?
The vineyards are distributed in the hills of Egna and Mazzon, the most suitable area in Italy for this noble vine. It is no coincidence that all the most important producers (Carlotto, Gottardo, Brunnenhof) have their headquarters and vineyards right here.
From 300 to 900 meters, the altitudes are extreme: Dolomite soils rich in limestone.
The excursion is naturally essential to refresh the grapes and give the bunches aroma and acidity, avoiding cooking during the day. Vinification in open steel tanks with daily fuller. It is aged in used and new barriques.
Organoleptic characteristics
The result of all this attention is a didactic wine that recalls the mountains, the woods, and the earth. It is subtle and delicate, fragrant and ethereal, but it never lets itself be caged in a heavy stylization. Of course, the wood has shaped the liveliness and flavor of the grapes, but it has done it with a gentle hand. Pushing and not forcing.
The bouquet is precise, declined with great elegance and cleanliness. Berries, musk, licorice, and earth with hummus and dry leaves. Ethereal notes that open little by little. It does not follow stylistic needs, but only the varietal, enhanced by a light spiciness, played between cinnamon and more severe oak notes. Do not worry: the wood is a hint and does not cover.
We are talking about the 2019 vintage, this wine has just been born, and the fruit’s arrogance still covers the tertiary aroma.
It is subtle, earthy, and well defined by the phrasing between acidity and flavor on the palate. It is not a structured wine, and the tannins are fine-grained, subtle, but not emaciated. The earthy flavors of rhubarb and anise are intense but don’t cut the palate. As soon as you open it, it is a somewhat closed, introspective wine, but by waiting a few hours, it opens up, the roundness increases, it is less grumpy, and from wild strawberries, it passes to mint and more balsamic tones.
Among all the Italian Pinot Noir, it is one of the most delicate and slender, do not expect power but chisel work.
Of course, it is not a wine to drink immediately: it would be a shame. Pleasant it already is and balanced too, but the charm it potentially has is yet to be discovered.
Price
20-22 euros: an excellent price for an excellent red wine.
Food Pairings
Black truffle risotto, passatelli with Parmigiano fondue and truffle, bucatini all’amatriciana, roast beef, hamburger.