2012 Elisabetta Foradori, Fontanasanta, Manzoni Bianco, Vigneti delle Dolomiti IGT, Trentino, Italy.
This wine is one of the top ten whites of the year, in a great year for white wine, and another stunning wine for Elisabetta Foradori’s collection of glorious offerings, this 2012 Fontanasanta Manzoni Bianco is a masterpiece. The Fontanasanta is made from the native and rare Manzoni grape, fermented and aged by Foradori in amphora and raised on it’s skins, this ancient technique is making a come back around the world, but nowhere have the results been as good, as they are in northern Italy, especially the beautifully detailed wines of Elisabetta Foradori, who employs natural winemaking and organic farming at her winery high in the Italian Dolomites near Trentino not from from Alto Adige. The skin contact gives a bit of yellowy color, but not as much as you’d find in other varietals like Pinot Grigio which really turn orange, but the Fontanasanta gains tannin and savory elements that bring superb structure and complexity to this gorgeous white wine, this wine certainly rivals white Burgundy for elegance, layers and finish, but it is much more unique to it’s varietal and terroir, as well as the winemaking style itself, it is truly a marvel to cherish, in the glass it gives unending pleasure with bright flavors, subtle density and mineral tones. The 2012 is a bit lighter and delicate than the 2010 or 2011 versions, but that might even make it that much better, starting with a play of aromas, white flavors, anise, chalky stones, saline and tropical essences lift dreamy from the glass, leading to a medium weight palate of lemon/lime, orange, green apple, white peach, flinty/rocks, apricot pit, melon and cured meats along with rose petal, earth and wild fennel. This wine is graceful, joyous and exotic, it is a masterful piece of craftsmanship and passion, I can’t recommend this beauty strongly enough, you should experience this rare wine, fantastic in everyday, drink from 2015 to 2020.
($36 Est.) 95 Points, grapelive