Tasting note: Foradori Teroldego Rotaliano DOC 2004

A couple of years ago, I had the pleasure of tasting a bottle of Granato, Elisabetta Foradori’s flagship wine from her estate in Alto Adige. I remember it as an elegant, well-structured red that made me feel like finding out more about its varietal, teroldego, typical of this particular part of Northeast Italy.

Lo and behold, a couple of weeks ago, I find a bottle of Foradori Teroldego Rotaliano DOC 2004, a much less expensive varietal wine from the same producer. No hesitation, I had to find out what it could deliver.

Answer: I’m not quite sure yet. Not because there was anything wrong with the bottle, or because it wasn’t up to speed, but rather because it was pretty much closed. I had trouble smelling or tasting anything definite in the wine, except a touch of red cherry, a bit of torrefied flavors and vanilla-oak tones (it ages a year in small oak barrels), around solid yet fine tannins. The way this closely-wound, dark-purple wine felt, the way these discrete touches came together, made me very confident about the wine’s future. I guess I’ll just have to stick another bottle or two in the cellar and test my theory…