Wine is alive: in the glass it evolves, it beats, it goes deep into the body, into the soul.
Our wines
The use of biodynamic preparations outbalanced and enhanced the vineyard’s ability to fully express their character.
Thus, since harvest 2009 we resumed the bottling of Teroldego Morei and Teroldego Sgarzon, two vineyards with differing remarks.
Fontanasanta is located in the hills above Trento. In this place full of waterways and biodiversity Nosiola and Manzoni Bianco thrive on a clayey-calcareous soil.
Fuoripista Pinot Grigio represents the character of vineyard sites close to the river Noce on the Southern edge of Campo Rotaliano: it is the gravel deriving from predominantly dolomitic rocks that donates an archetypical structure to this wine.
By bringing together different plots of land, Foradori wanted to give to the Teroldego variety
three expressions:
- – Vineyards created through mass selection and the reconstruction of different genetic variability located across the different sites of Campo Rotaliano (Foradori);
- – The oldest Foradori vines, three old pergola vineyards which have an average age of 70 years (Granato);
- – The young vines which produce a light red wine (Lezèr)
Teroldego
The first written document in which Teroldego is mentioned by name dates back to 1383 in the fields between Trento and Povo where a barrel of vinum teroldegum was used to pay the interest on a loan. At the time, it was grown between Rovereto and the Campo Rotaliano. Documents from the sixteenth century refer to its production in the area of Mezzolombardo, to which it has been associated for centuries up to this day. Elsewhere its use waned.
Despite numerous attempts to acclimatize it in other regions, Teroldego remains deeply bound to its mountains and the unique environment of the Piana Rotaliana. The soil, rich with calcareous, granitic and porphyric rocks carried by the river Noce downstream, ensures a perfect drainage for rainwater; the cliffs, massive and vertical, protect the vines from the cold winds and reflect the heat absorbed from the sun: these conditions are exclusive to this environment and essential for enabling the wine to best express its mineral, floral and spicy character.
In the mid-nineteenth century, the path of the Noce River was managed and diverted southward, leaving the Campo Rotaliano in its current geographical conformation and leading to a further factor of excellence for Teroldego: the fragmentation of the vineyards into many small plots has clearly highlighted the differences between each plot depending on its distance from the ancient riverbed. In fact, the various soils, that are predominantly rocky, gravely or sandy, transmit to the wine a real originality. Intensity, strength, depth, finesse as well as minerality, freshness, elegance: a profusion of widely divergent elements but that combined in perfect harmony have always allowed the wine, considered “Prince of Trentino”, to be the real expression of a land, its people, the Dolomites.
+ The origins of the cultivated grapevine
+ The genetics of Teroldego
Manzoni Bianco
Due to widespread pest and disease attacks that left European vineyards in a deep crisis from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century, numerous researchers concentrated on the genetic improvement of grapevines through hybridization and breeding.
In 1924, at the Scuola Enologica di Conegliano Veneto, professor Luigi Manzoni (1888-1968) began a series of experiments that lasted until the mid-thirties and that led to the registration of a number of clones derived from the crossing of various varieties.
Manzoni Bianco (IM 6.0.13) is certainly the most successful of his results: obtained by crossing Pinot Blanc with Riesling, it is now present in nearly all the Italian regions and is particularly widespread in Veneto, Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Trentino.
Despite its remarkable ability to adapt to very different climates and soils, Manzoni Bianco thrives in hilly areas with a clayey-calcareous soil. In this environment, it generally produces small, short clusters with medium-small grape berries that are yellow-green and have a very pruinose and consistent skin.
An interesting balance between body and flavor and a good acidity characterize the wine. The patience needed to wait for its evolution is rewarded with an appreciation of its deeply mineral character inherited by Riesling, coupled with the smoothness and the floral scent of Pinot Blanc.
Nosiola
The only white grape variety native to Trentino, Nosiola was once widespread throughout the region, particularly in the Valle dei Laghi, the hills of Trento, Pressano and Cembra Valley. These areas are still the most suitable areas for its cultivation.
Its origin is rather uncertain: it is often confused with Durella from Vicenza. It is first referred to in 1825 when Acerbi enumerates it within «le viti dei contorni di Trento» (the vines of the outskirts of Trento).
It is later described again in G. Di Rovasenda’s “Universal Ampelography” (1877) and in subsequent publications including Molon (1906), Dalmasso (1921), Babo and Mach (1923), Marzotto (1925), Cosmo and Forti (1935).
Numerous references found in sixteenth century documents, however, indicate a strong possibility that Nosiola was already cultivated during the period of the Council of Trento, indicating this wine as having a central role during religious celebrations and banquets.
The name “Nosiola”, considered with male and female gender alike, seems to derive from a closeness with the wild hazelnut (“nosiol” in the Trentino dialect).
In fact, the hazelnut grows in the same hilly and mild habitat and its fruits have a color that is similar to the shades of Nosiola’s ripe grape berries and branches.
Nosiola is linked to the ancient production of the ‘Vino Santo’ in the Valle dei Laghi, while in the hills above Trento, Lavis and the Cembra Valley it is vinified exclusively as a dry wine. It favors clayey-calcareous soils with low fertility and habitats with high biodiversity, where afternoon breezes and cooler night temperatures temper the heat of the day and the loose grape-bunch can remain on the vine until late October.
Due to its fairly neutral aromas, in the past Nosiola was usually fermented on the skins. Thus the long maceration can extract the structure and aromas that characterize this wine along with its great longevity.
Pinot Grigio
Pinot Grigio is the result of a genetic mutation of the Pinot Noir variety, which gives variation to the color of the berry. It comes from the original French variety of Pinot Gris, where it is grown almost exclusively in Alsace. Skin-on vinification gives this wine its unusual coppery color.
A variety that has spread overtime across central Europe, initially it was found in Germany where it is known as “Ruländer”, before being found in Hungary, Austria, Slovenia and Romania. It eventually arrived in Italy towards the end of 1800, initially only found in Trentino-Alto Adige before being cultivated across all of the north east, where today you can find the largest number of vineyards.
It has become very popular in America, particularly across California and also further afield in Argentina, Chile, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. Despite being considered an international varietal, today Italy remains the largest global producer.
In terms of Ampelographic classification, Pinot Grigio has a small, cylindrical form with the tendency of having a winged and compact cluster. The grape itself is small and ovoid in shape, the skin has a characteristic coppery-pink color.
The Fuoripista goes against the usual Trentino Pinot Grigio rules. Its longer skin-on vinification in Tinajas makes it brighter and more delicate in its expression.