Why it matters
The producer
In 1948, fourteen grape growers in the Lavis valley decided their mountain fruit was worth more than the price offered by the bulk traders. They pooled their plots and formed Cantina La-Vis, a cooperative built on a single shared conviction: that Trentino's alpine grapes deserved to become named wine. Seventy-five years later, the cooperative has grown to more than 400 member-families farming approximately 400 hectares of mountain vineyard, but the logic has not changed. Four hundred people make the decisions in the vineyard; one cellar sets the house style.
That house style is legible in the bottle. Altitude drives everything at La-Vis: the cool diurnal swings, the late-September harvests, and the clean acidity that runs through the Riesling and Sauvignon Blanc. Around 80 percent of production is white wine. That figure reflects the mountain climate more than any deliberate commercial calculation.
Place and vineyards
Where the wines begin
Lavis sits in the Adige valley in Trentino, the northern Italian region that shares a border with Alto Adige and pushes up against the Alps. The cooperative's vineyards climb from 250 metres on the valley floor to 550 metres on the higher slopes, and the altitude range is the main reason the wines taste the way they do. Higher sites slow ripening, extend hang time, and build aromatic complexity without softening acidity. Lower sites are warmer and earlier, suited to grapes that need more heat to ripen.
Trentino's appellation allows for varietal labelling, so bottles carry the grape name on the label rather than a village or vineyard name. Rhine Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, and Pinot Nero all appear under the I Classici range, each made to express a single grape grown across the cooperative's spread of elevations.
In the cellar
Vineyards and cellar
All harvesting across the cooperative is done by hand. In late September the Riesling comes in from the higher parcels, where cooler temperatures have kept sugar accumulation slow and acidity high. The grapes are soft-pressed in an inert environment to avoid oxidation, and the must is settled by static decantation before fermentation in stainless steel at controlled temperatures. The Riesling spends five to six months on the lees in tank before bottling, a period long enough to add texture and weight without altering the grape's aromatic directness.
The Sauvignon Blanc follows a similar lees-aging path, with four to five months on the lees, but 10 percent of the wine is aged in oak barrels. The barrel fraction is small enough to function as a modifier rather than a flavour note: it adds a rounding quality to what is otherwise a fresh, fruit-forward wine without pushing the Sauvignon toward a toasty or vanilla register.
Wines to know
The range in view
The I Classici range carries the three confirmed grape varieties, each made to a consistent cellar philosophy that emphasises grape character and freshness over oak influence.
The I Classici Riesling is a single-variety wine from Rhine Riesling parcels across the cooperative's mountain holdings. Pale yellow with green tints, aromas of candied fruit and carob, and on the palate full-bodied for its 12% ABV, with marked acidity and a fruit weight that comes from the extended lees aging. It is a wine designed to show altitude rather than winemaker intervention.
A useful way in
A bottle to begin with
Start with the I Classici Riesling. It is a Rhine Riesling from mountain parcels across the cooperative's elevation range, harvested by hand in late September, fermented in stainless steel, and aged on the lees for five to six months before bottling. It is a pale, aromatic white at 12% ABV: bright acidity, candied fruit and carob on the nose, and a clean, fruit-carrying finish. There is no oak, no residual sweetness, and no attempt to make the wine richer than the altitude allows. Drink it within a year or two of release, or give it several months in bottle from purchase if the acidity feels sharp on opening.