2004 Foradori Granato Vigneti delle Dolomiti IGT- Italy, Trentino-Alto Adige, Vigneti delle Dolomiti IGT (9/28/2010)
This bottle seems more grapey than the last bottle. Somewhat of a sweet black hole at first. Still reminds me of a Dolcetto/Petite Sirah blend…very dark inky raspberry, blackberry, cherry fruit…soft and smooth, yet still quite firm with dusty white pepper tannin and spice. Florals galore, gorgeous nose, has notes of dried herbs and earth tones, as well as some meat blood. Probably will be even better the next day…and should age well for a very long time. 375ml bottle (93 pts.)
My experience with this wine is like my experience with Montevetrano: they are never mature or “in the zone,” even!
They’re also too expensive for me to buy and cellar, so I guess I won’t be responsible for sheparding one into its drinking window. I’ll have to rely on the generosity of others.
But really…is Granato a twenty year wine or what? My oldest bottle was 8 years old, and it hadn’t budged from it’s youthful, brooding state.
I’m a big fan of teroldego in general and Granato in particular but I don’t put them in a long aging category. They show a ton of character on release with a truly unique flavor that tends to be pretty polarizing - you either like it or you don’t - but if you don’t like it, don’t bother putting them away in hopes of their true personality emerging; if anything the opposite is the case. With bottle age the fruit sweetness will turn a little more savory and you’ll get some smoky aromas, but you’ll also lose a lot of what made the flavor so distinctive. A different profile but not necessarily a better one. It’s not like they have a lot of tannin to shed that requires time in the bottle, so I’m happy drinking them in their youth.
I’m mostly with Keith on drinking soon to medium-term. I love Teroldego and Lagrein - particuarly with slightly smoky meat dishes. But they remind me a little of Zin insofar as there’s a rustic exuberance that I don’t particularly want to see tamed by the cellar.
By higher-end bottlings (Clesurae), I’m a little reminded of Petite Sirah. While they may be tough young, I’m not sure that what aging replaces is actually better.
Yes, I agree that teroldego is generally a short-to-mid-term drinker, but I guess that Granato in particular never seems to get over it’s barrique aging. The fruit seems masked in it’s youth, and apparently, absent once it’s mature. Maybe it’s simply over-oaked…or maybe as Jim suggests, I’m just in the “don’t really like it” camp, although I want to like it!
I’ve never had a problem drinking Foradori’s Granato young - I purchase their regular Teroldego quite a bit - it’s one of my favorite wines (and grapes) - and I see the Granato marked down heavily quite a bit so I still think it can be quite the bargain -
I’m a big fan of Roberto Zeni’s Teroldegos as well -
