2023 Foradori, Teroldego, Vigneti delle Dolomiti, Alto Adige, Italy.
This new vintage of 2023 Foradori’s Teroldego, Vigneti delle Dolomiti, is beautifully aromatic and deeply hued with a purple/garnet color in the glass and very consistent with past releases with a fine mineral element to go along with elegant layers of fruit. Again there’s a dusting of spices and a lovely textural mouth feel with black raspberry, currant and dark cherry, accented with green spice, mountain herbs, minty anise, and natural acidity that vibrant, but smooth. The Foradori Teroldego was native yeast fermented from all hand harvested 100% Teroldego grapes and saw mostly de-stemmed berries with a limited amount of full bunches sourced from estate vines set ion the sandy soils and Dolomitic limestone in the Campo Rotaliano area with a small portion still farmed in the historical pergola-trained method. The Teroldego grape, which has distant relationship to Syrah and Pinot, is an ancient varietal and is almost unknown outside of its native Alto Adige and was first mentioned in documents back in the 1300s, and like Lagrein, which is also found almost entirely in this remote mountainous part of Italy. Interestingly too, Teroldego also maybe linked to the far East, most likely it was a natural crossing of grapes with some European wild vines and vines that came from as far as Georgia and as close as Croatia. Foradori’s efforts (in clonal diversity) have reduced yields and berry size as well as having a heightened aromatic quality
Elisabetta Foradori, who took over her family’s estate at a young age after the unexpected death of her father, focuses on holistic and biodynamic farming and her estate has become a total sustainable farm and regenerative with a deep respect of the land and environment which honors the land and history of the region of Trentino in the high elevation wine zone of the Italian Alps. Over her winemaking career, Foradori has explored her techniques and styles, which have evolved over the last decade and she fine tuned how she approaches her wines with the wines relying less on small barriques and new oak and employing indigenous yeast and whole cluster fermentations and using special amphora for some of the wines. Elisabetta Foradori is one of Italy’s greatest vignerons and a leading light in the world of what we call natural wine and her signature Teroldego bottlings some of the country’s most sought after and prized wines, with even this, her entry level or basic version of this unique varietal being a fabulous effort, with this exceptional 2023 being a vintage to look for. As mentioned before, Foradori’s Teroldego wines, especially this one that offers such a great value, though I must say her whites are easily just as compelling with her Manzoni Bianco and Nosiola Bianco both being stunning, as well as the Fuoripista, the “orange” version of Pinot Grigio. If you’ve not tried any of the Foradori wines, now is a great time to explore them.
($34 Est.) 93 Points, grapelive