The Lady Against the Current

Few female winemakers enjoys greater respect in the world than Elisabetta Foradori from Trentino. When her father passed away in 1984, the 19 year old Elisabetta Foradori had to take over the family’s estate. She might had another career in mind, but she did well taking that big decision.

Trentino is located in the northeast of Italy, and it has been join together with its neighbouring district Alto-Adige, also called South-Tyrol, which borders to Veneto in the east. When we are talking about Italian wine, Trendino easily is in the shadow of Piemonte, Tuscany and Veneto, . Maybe it’s not that strange, since the wines from the area have struggled to show identity and character in the modern wine world.

In the eighties the majority of the local growers wanted to plant international grapes such as Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay, even if that meant to pull out the grape varieties. Foradori started to plant the globetrotter Sauvignon Blanc, but she changed her mind when she saw the potential in the local grapes.

Back to the roots

After some years of trying and failing, she was in no doubt: She wanted to go for the relatively scarce and unknown red grape Teroldego. Teroldego is genetically in family with the famous Syrah and has the same qualities: Full body and round fruit combined with balanced tannins and its good cellar capabilities. The grape is only grown in Trentino, and the best appellation is Campo Rotaliano, were Foradori has all there vineyards.

When Foradori started to study the Teroldego vineyards, she discovered that they were planted with a the idea to achieve quantity instead of quality. After doing a massive selection, where buds were taken from the best plants, they selected the best genetic to bring back the best of the variety.

Steiner-Wine

Since 2000 Elisabetta Foradori has converted all of her production to biodynamic, and the work now is done by Rudolf Steiner’s principals. In 2003 all of the 22 hectare was converted, but it takes five to seven years before you really feel the great differences, she explains.

The best and most complex red wine goes into the Granato, its takes its name from the colour of the wine.The others goes under the wine Teroldego Rotaliano.

She also does the white wine Myrto, which comes from 80 years old vines of the local grape Incrocio Manzoni, as well as Sauvignon Blanc.

In the case of Teroldego, investigations have determined that the genetic structure of this cultivar is frequently present in the Italian accessions.

The strict relationship among Teroldego, Lagrein, Marzemino, and specially with Syrah opens new interesting perspectives. Lagrein, considered as the father of Teroldego, is derived from Pinot noir. Pinot noir represents a junction point with Syrah; because it is also considered to be the father of the cultivar called Dureza, that molecular evidences have demonstrated to be Syrah’s father.