TN: 2016 Foradori Granato Vigneti delle Dolomiti IGT

  • 2016 Foradori Granato Vigneti delle Dolomiti IGT - Italy, Trentino-Alto Adige, Vigneti delle Dolomiti IGT (2/28/2020)
    As other others have noted on CT, a mixed of wild berries, both red and black are at the forefront of both the nose and the palate, some earthy notes, and playful tannins. Added with medium to medium-low acidity, I was drifting towards thinking of this as the Italian cousin of a top shelf Bedrock (Dolinsek?) or a Carlisle from the Russian River. But then one senses the palate density….and its almost freakin weightless. Game changer. Working this backwards, everything seems different now, a wine with some fruit for sure, but so unique, playful yet serious, just like what everybody says about Elisabetta F from various articles and whatnot. I’m pretty sure the Granato doesn’t see the famous amphora that Foradori is known for but is aged in old oak barrels (open air?) Simply lovely. No clue how this will age out.

Posted from CellarTracker

Thanks for the note. I have very little experience with Foradori’s wines – just a bottle or two and trade tastings. I’ve found them fairly tannic, – not playfully tannic. But they’re definitely serious wines. I’m really curious to try some with age.

FYI, in the last decade, the Granato has been aged in 2,200 liter casks. Before that, it was aged in barriques, and in the early years she used some new barriques. https://www.bowlerwine.com/wine-or-spirit/granato-2

The only Granato’s I’ve had with age were late 90’s bottlings and I wasn’t too impressed with them: the first (at around 5 years of age?) was too tannic and oaky, the 2nd at around 12 was nondescript. Perhaps they have changed to make them better?

If you read the importer’s website above, there have been a lot of changes, beginning with replacing poor, high-yielding vines with massale-selection vines, using different maceration techniques, and shifting from barriques (including new) to botti.

I’ve had this same wine, and it’s definitely a fine wine, much as Dale described. Very light on its feet, yet with lots going on–the tannins here are well integrated and do not get in the way.

I always thought this wine when I first started trying it was rather over-oaked and in a modern International style.
I preferred her regular Toreldego to the Granato. Since then, she has toned down the oak and I think it’s
probably the greatest Teroldego produced in the World.
When I visited w/ Elisabetta a few yrs ago, I took along the Harrington Teroldego to share with her. She raised her eyebrows
and acknowledged that this was pretty good expression of Teroldego…“But not as good as mine”!!
Tom

Yes, it obviously should be planted up and down the west coast! Too bad what we were getting got ripped out. I do think it’s well suited to much of the Santa Clara Valley and recommend it to anyone who’ll pretend to listen. Some of those plots just out of the SCM AVA still can make exceptional CS, but where it would be just decent Teroldego, I think, would make a better wine. Worth it for an estate winery to consider having in-the-mix at a level for tasting room and club sales. (We all know Teroldego is dead at retail.)

I am a huge fan of the regular bottling, and the last vintage I’ve had of the Granato was the 2014. No doubt it’s easily in the top two Teroldegos (with Roberto Zeni’s bottlings).

We obviously need that silver-tongued devil, Bryan, going up&down the West Coast telling them to plant Teroldego.
The Bevela Teroldego that is made by Jim Clendenan’s niece down in SantaBarbara is also pretty good.
Tom