Terlano 2022 Vorberg Pinot Bianco Reserva

The Wine

This winery has its roots in two cultures - Austrian and Italian. Though it is currently part of Italy, the Alto Adige region was long known as Sud Tirol (South Tyrol) and was part of Austria. But the world war gave Italy the upper hand, and they annexed the land, telling the residents to become Italian or leave everything behind and return to Austria. As you can imagine, this created some ill will that still hangs in the air today. A significant portion of the population still uses German as the primary language in their home, but is also fluent in Italian. Street signs, menus, and hotel room signs are repeated in German, Italian and then, as a concession to the region's all-important tourism, English!

But I digress. This section is all about the wine, so let's get to it. 

This wine is 100% Pinot Bianco (AKA, Pinot Blanc, AKA Weissburgunder, AKA Klevner) grown on steeply sloped vineyards (ranging from 5% to 75%) at 1,500 - 2,100 feet in elevation, the vineyard demands truly heroic viticulture.

The wine in the glass (we recommend a Chardonnay / White Burgundy glass) is straw yellow and offers complex and thought-provoking aromas that evolve over time - ripe fruit, honeydew melon, white peach, pear and Golden Delicious apple, together with the aromas of quince jelly, chamomile tea and then there's this surprising element of pineapple juxtaposed by mineral notes of flint.

On the palate there's an interplay of these same fruity and salty components that demands 'just one more sip' so the taster can fully appreciate the wine. The wine's compact structure balances its elegant, creamy elements that, together, create a lingering, firmly minerally and spicy finish.

This wine will easily age for a decade or more. Sound implausible? This might help - Terlano releases a wine called "Rarity" - their most prestigious wine of all. Each release may be a different varietal but the one thing they have in common is aging in barrel for a year, followed by aging on the lees in stainless steel tanks for 10-30 years until the winemaker decides it is fully ready. 70% of their production is white wine.

The Winery

Terlano is one of the world's most highly-regarded cooperative wineries. And key to their reputation is a focus on long-lived wines. Terlano's white wines in particular have repeatedly hit the headlines in trade publications for their ability to outlast the decades.

The longevity of these wines is due to a combination of the high mineral content in the soils, old vines growing in complete harmony, carefully managed vineyards with low yields per vine, and the rigorous selection of heathy and fully mature grapes.

Winemaking in Terlano traditionally involves the use of wooden barrels. Special emphasis is also placed on the “sur lie” method, with the wines often left to age on the yeast for years before being bottled and left to slowly mature to perfection. The slow maturation process gives the wines their specific character and complexity.

Their focus is on developing the complex secondary and tertiary aromas rather than the primary aromas. Proof of the benefits of this approach is to be found in the winery’s wine archive, which contains over 100,000 bottles in a collection of rarities comprising various vintages from 1955 to the present.

Some of the wines in the archive are from 1893, the year the winery was founded.