2023 Kellerei Cantina Terlan, Cuvée Terlaner, Alto Adige DOC, Italy.
It was great to catch up with Terlan/Terlano, at this year’s Gambero Rosso Tre Bicchieri tasting, as it does some fantastic stuff, so, as I’ve always recommended, please take time to discover some of their more rare offerings, look for their Quarz (Sauvignon Blanc), the Kreuth (Chardonnay), the Lunare (Gewürztraminer), the Vorberg (Pinot Blanc) plus the two blended cuvées Nova Domus and this gorgeous crisply focused Terlaner, both of which are outrageously good and great value for the money! This 2023 Teraner, which is a blend of Terlano’s three most traditional white varieties, namely (and mostly) Pinot Bianco, as well as Chardonnay and Sauvignon, and the winery says, this old cuvée, was one of the original wines produced when the winery was founded in the late 1800s, is a mineral intense and beautifully elegant white wine that excels in its subtlety. With 60% Pinot Bianco, 30% Chardonnay and 10% Sauvignon Blanc this wine shows off loads of charm and energy with a medium bodied palate of lemony citrus, green melon, honeyed peach, apple and Bosc pear fruits, along with steely wet rock, mountain herbs, almond paste, delicate florals and a hint of kiwi and pithy lime zest. Coming from the Alto Adige “Terlano” zone with a variety of South and Southwest facing parcels, set on a volcanic quartz porphyry bedrock and sandy-loamy soils, with between 5 and 60% slopes, catching plenty of Alpine sunshine and giving ripe complexity and plenty of structure.
The Terlan/Terlano winery, one of my favorite Alto Adige producers, especially for white wines like this one, but also they make one of the finest Sauvignon Blancs in the world and many others, was founded back in 1893 in this mainly German speaking region of Italian’s far north Dolomite Mountains, an area known as the South Tyrol, connected to Austria by traditions and culture. Terlan/Terlano is a cooperative in function with some 143 small artisan growers providing grapes with a total focus on high quality over quantity, pushing for organics and sustainable practices, and their track record on wines is legendary, and these wines are amazingly age worthy bottlings, I have on many occasions tasted 20 to 30 year old whites, in particular their Chardonnay, that were incredible and exceptionally fresh. Most of the vines used by Terlan/Terlano are on red porphyry, the stone that gives the wines in the area their typical character and a dusting of sand and a thin top soil, which allows a striking minerallity and a crystalline personality, along with south facing exposures that give lots of sunshine in this Alpine and pristine high elevation zone. This wine, that comes in at 13.5% natural alcohol, saw a slow fermentation with temperature control in stainless steel tanks, after which it is aged on the lees for 6 – 7 months in a combination of stainless steel tanks (80%) and partly in big old oak barrels (20%). This makes for a lovely, textural and serious wine that can be enjoyed over the next 3 to 10 years, it will I’m sure evolve nicely and be highly rewarding over that time, excellent again from Terlan.
($30 Est.) 94 Points, grapelive