Cantina Terlano

You’ll remember the first time you taste a wine from Cantina Terlano. The spectrum of beautifully textured fruit augmented by dazzling minerality will stop you in your tracks and have you wondering how you didn’t discover these sooner. A true conduit of its region, the wines of Cantina Terlano sing so clearly of their place of origin: bundles of minerality, ripe fruit and soaring, age-worthy acidity...we can be in only one place, the Italian Dolomites. Widely regarded as the best producer of white wines in Italy and among the best in the world, the Cantina Terlano winery is a social cooperative in Alto-Adige, just outside the region’s capital Bolzano, on the slopes of the Adige river. Joint owned by its 150 members, the growers and contributors to the winery share in the profits and growers must commit to supplying all of their production, so there are no secondary motives!

Pinot Bianco is perhaps the grape variety that they do best up here, with its lifted, mouth-watering, brightly aromatic characteristics. Pinot Bianco is found in many forms at Cantina Terlano, on its own in a lovely estate expression, as the single vineyard, concentrated and complex Vorberg Pinot Bianco Riserva, and blended with Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc in the stunning Terlaner Cuvée, which must be one of Italy’s best whites under £25. The range spreads far beyond Pinot Bianco though, with a host of scrumptious and complex whites, Chardonnay, Pinoy Grigio, Gewürztraminer to name a few. Cantina Terlano’s wines are truly age-worthy and they are one of the few places in the world to hold back some of their white wine production and release a developed and truly stunning wine in the peak of its drinking window. If you ever get the chance to taste or buy one of their Rarità wines and you have the budget (a couple of hundred pounds) you will not be disappointed.

We mustn’t forget the reds either! Pinot Noir in particular thrives up here at altitude, and with the day and night temperature shifts that allow it to develop expressive fruit flavours without losing its refreshing character. The Pinot Noir Classico is a juicy and balanced example, with the Monticol Pinot Noir Riserva offering concentration, complexity and elegance.