Cantina Terlan Pinot Bianco 'Vorberg' Riserva Alto Adige 2022

Description

Cantina Terlano is well known in Italian wine drinking circles for producing Italy’s longest lived white wines. Produced in the southern part of the most northerly Italian region of Alto Adige. Here they grow predominately French varieties that were brought to the region two hundred years go by the Napoleonic invasion and where you find the greatest expressions of Pinot Bianco from anywhere in the world. While the main town of Bolzano, the capital of the region, is Italian, the village of Terlan and the other winemaking villages are very German in character and history and this shines through in the wines. Up to 1992 the Cantina Terlan was run by the mythical winemaker Sebastian Stocker, considered the greatest white winemaker of Italy. He was a mountain man, always seen in his blue apron but he was never commercially minded despite managing to make a good living for the member-growers. Following his retirement, the Cantina honoured Sebastian’s legacy by taking these vinous treasures out into the wider world and today Terlan is known as one of the very finest white wine producers in all of Italy.

The Riserva Vorberg is produced from the south-facing slopes of Monzoccolo in the Terlano DOC area at altitudes of between 450 and 650 meters. It has a sparkling straw yellow colour, the multifaceted aroma of this wine derives from a combination of ripe fruit, including honeydew melon, white peach, pear and Golden Delicious apple, together with the aromas of quince jelly and dried fruit such as pear, orange and pineapple, on the one hand, and graphite notes and a hint of jasmine with a mineral touch on the other. The interplay of fruity aromatic and salty components is repeated on the palate, where the soft and creamy elements gain greater strength in a wine with a lingering, firmly minerally and spicy character on the aftertaste. Ideal combination with a spicy fish soup, and spaghetti allo scoglio as well as lobster thermidor. Also one of the few good combinations with artichokes alla romana; excellent with mature Pecorino, a mature Parmesan and Tête de Moine.

99 Points

Restrained apricot peel, fairly neutral yet classy, but with a floral bouquet that opens up. The attack is full and impressively vibrant, almost electric, with filigreed elegance and a silky, weighted palate. Long and polished. This is incredible. Drink now or hold to achieve greater complexity. James Suckling