Foradori "Fontanasanta" Manzoni Bianco, Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy 2024

FROM LOUIS/DRESSNER:

THE WINE: 100% Manzoni Bianco. Manzoni is a 1930's crossing of Riesling Renano and Pinot Bianco, developed in the Veneto by Dr. Luigi Manzoni. Foradori works 5 hectares of this rare variety in the Fontanasanta vineyard at about 400 meters above the city of Trento, a few miles down-valley from the Foradori estate in Mezzolombardo. The vines are 15 to 35 years old and grow on clay-limestone soils. The farming is organic. The bunches are harvested by hand and destemmed. Fermentation is spontaneous with indigenous yeasts and without sulfur in cement and steel tanks; maceration with the skins lasts 3-4 days. The wine goes through malo and is aged in used acacia barrels for about 7 months. It is bottled without fining or filtering and with the wine's only very small dose of sulfur. Like all Foradori wines, the wine is classified as IGT Vigneti delle Dolomiti.

THE PRODUCER: Elisabetta’s journey in her “wine life” is a familiar tale, but one that we never tire of hearing. The early death of her father unexpectedly hurtled her to the management of the family estate. Though “born among the vines” as she says, she took the helm at first more from a sense of duty than one of passion or vocation. Eventually, however, that passion and vocation came through the work itself, both in the vines and in the cellar. Despite her star rising as "the queen of Teroldego" throughout the 1990's, by 2000 Elisabetta had lost all personal connection to her work. A path of questioning, experimentation and intuition (including everything from biodynamics, massale selection and the use of amphorae) eventually led her to give up any sense of chasing market trends of the “wine industry” to develop the estate towards the goal of making wines respectful of the soil and the local grapes she wants to honor, and using the techniques she found more interesting, less invasive, and more wine “holistic”.