Elisabetta Foradori has become one of Italy’s top “superstar” winemakers. Without a doubt, she is Italy’s finest producer of wines made from the Teroldego grape variety, one of the country’s oldest and finest traditional grapes. The Teroldego grape is genetically related to Syrah, and here in the northern Trentino’s mountain valleys it reaches its zenith in the subzone known as Campo Rotaliano. All the Foradori vineyards lie in the side valley of Campo Rotaliano, and it is from these beautiful vineyards that Elisabetta Foradori is quietly producing some of Italy’s most complex, deep and compelling red wines. The estates vines are farmed biodynamically, and are all planted in a broad selection of old massale selection plants that she was responsible for isolating and propagating (along with the department of viticulture at the University of Milan). Teroldego may not have the same international cachet as Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot, but the Foradori wines are stunning examples of world class red wines that dance rings around the vast, vast majority of modern Italian wines made from these two international grape varieties.
The style of Teroldego from Foradori is unique and quite stunning. The bouquet is a complex mélange of sweet black fruit redolent of cherries and dark berries, coupled with notes of blood orange, dark chocolate and classic Italian overtones of olives, herbs and soil. Like Syrah, it can also offer up a bit of meatiness or notes of game in its youth. On the palate the Foradori wines are full-bodied, focused and beautifully balanced, synthesizing a refined style with the robust, Syrah-like hearty palate impression that is inherent in Teroldego. Tannins here are beautifully integrated into the body of the wine, adding lovely structure for cellaring, while allowing the wines to be drunk with great enjoyment in their youth.
Elisabetta Foradori only took over the family estate in 1985, and in the ensuing years she has blazed a trail of excellence with her stunning Teroldegos that has greatly aided in the expanded interest in this ancient varietal. Her wines are now a fixture at many of the top restaurants throughout Italy. There are two distinct bottlings of Teroldego at Foradori. The basic bottling called Teroldego Rotaliano which is made for earlier consumption, comes from a combination of estate fruit and purchased grapes. The top of the line bottling, called Granato, represents the finest selection of Teroldego in the Foradori holdings, and is built to age gracefully for many years. The Granato bottling is aged in small oak casks for twelve to fifteen months, seventy percent of which are new (though lightly toasted) oak. Granato from Foradori is one of the great, unsung brilliant wines of Italy, and is a perennial winner of Gambero Rosso’s coveted Tre Bicchieri award.
In addition to her two reference point bottlings of Teroldego, Elisabetta also produces a white wine called Myrto which is made of a blend of sixty percent Sauvignon Blanc, twenty percent Pinot Bianco and twenty percent Manzoni. It is a classy, medium-bodied and zesty dry white wine that perfectly captures the bounce and classic soil expression of the best white wines of the Alto Adige. Like the stellar Foradori red wines, Myrto is a beautifully made white that offers up outstanding value and personality.
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