Cantina Terlano Pinot Bianco Vorberg: 1959-2014

BY IAN D’AGATA | JANUARY 31, 2017

Surprising as it may seem, Italy’s best white wine
producer may be a co-operative. Certainly no producer in the country makes
longer-lived white wines than the Cantina Terlano. Bottles from the 1950s are
still in splendid shape and are pursued by collectors and wine lovers around
the world. In fact, Terlano boasts the largest stocks of collectible old whites
of any winery in Italy.&nbsp;






















While Terlano now routinely sets aside several thousand
bottles every year with the aim of putting them on sale four to five years
after the harvest, this was not always the case. In fact, it was a practice
started in 1954 by kellermeister (chef de cave) Sebastian Stocker in the
first year he began working at Terlano. Stocker took it upon himself to
squirrel away bottles without telling anyone, for he knew that in those times
the co-op’s board would never have agreed to such a move. That’s because in
Italy wine had always been looked upon as a source of calories and as a
guarantee of a modest income for grape farmers and wineries, and was far
removed from its lifestyle or luxury image of today. Clearly, in a country that
had long lived through tough economic times and was just beginning to recover
from World War II, all wine was made to be sold immediately (for this reason,
very few Italian wine producers have any significant stocks of older bottles).
And so, thanks to Stocker hiding away hundreds of bottles every year behind a
brick wall (some of his original hiding places are still visible today, should
you visit the winery), Terlano was blessed with a cache of old bottles that
have made its reputation.<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1485871959296-a+view+from+the+Terlano+winery+copy.JPG"> A view from the Terlano wineryGetting to Know
TerlanoLocated in Italy’s northeast, in the bucolic region of
Alto Adige on the border with Austria (Alto Adige belonged to Austria until the
end of World War I), Terlano is the name of a town from which the co-operative
takes its name. Founded in 1892, the co-op farms 250 hectares, 70 of which used
to belong to members of the nearby Andriano social co-op. But when the latter
encountered difficulties due to tough economic times, Terlano took over
beginning with the 2009 vintage. Thus Terlano now boasts 230 members in all,
70% of whom are Terlano’s own original members.&nbsp;


























Like all co-ops, Terlano is not a small operation,
which makes its ability to produce extremely high-quality wines all the more
impressive. In fairness, there are several other Alto Adige co-ops that make
outstanding white wines (Tramin, Nalles-Magré and San Michele Appiano
immediately spring to mind), which explains why many wine experts and oenophiles
in Italy and abroad consider Alto Adige to be Italy’s best source of
high-quality whites. Terlano bottles 1.4 million bottles a year (plus another
500,000 under the Andriano label), sold in several tiers at varying price points.
And while Terlano makes brilliant reserve Sauvignon Blanc, Gewürztraminer,
Lagrein and Terlaner wines (the latter is an historical local blend, invented
by the Terlano co-operative, of roughly 60% to 90% Pinot Bianco, depending on
the vintage, plus smaller percentages of Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc), and
very solid entry-level wines, it is with Pinot Bianco that the co-op reaches a
pinnacle of quality that I would argue is not matched by anyone else working
with this variety—and not just in Italy, for that matter.<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1485871941921-the+old+and+the+new+in+the+cellar+copy.JPG"> The old and the new in the cellarUnderstanding
Pinot BiancoPinot Bianco (or Pinot
Blanc in French: different languages but exactly the same grape) is one of
the world’s most underrated wine grapes. The variety’s salient viticultural
features include potentially copious yields and a compact grape bunch that can
turn it into a veritable rot magnet. However, when Pinot Bianco is planted in
the right soils and handled by competent people (which in my view immediately
excludes anyone subjecting it to new oak, even especially ripe grapes from low-yielding
vines), the variety can deliver amazingly refined and long-lived wines that
exude delicate aromas and flavors of green or yellow apple and pear, white
flowers, chamomile, minerals and beeswax. Quince, almond and a variety of other
notes become more apparent as the better wines age. It is precisely due to
their subtlety that wines made with Pinot Bianco can easily be overwhelmed by
generous use of new oak.Also very typical of Pinot Bianco wines is an element
of mellowness, which translates into an almost sweet quality (even with
perfectly dry wines), a tactile and taste sensation to which the variety’s
inherent low acidity levels no doubt contribute. A good Pinot Bianco wine will be
deep and very long (when made from high yields it will likely be thin and
short), with sneaky concentration; in fact, it may resemble a cool-climate
Chardonnay, even though Pinot Bianco is always much less endowed with tropical
fruit and butter notes.






























Pinot Bianco and its wines had fallen on hard times in
the ‘80s and ‘90s when fat, buttery, oaky whites were all the rage. But times
have changed, and so the variety and its wines are slowly regaining a foothold
in vineyards and export markets alike. Look especially for today’s best dry
Pinot Bianco wines in Italy’s Alto Adige and Friuli Venezia Giulia, parts of
Germany and Austria’s Styria (in
Germany and Austria the variety is often referred to by its Germanic name of Weissburgunder). Alsace’s lovely Pinot Blanc wines are in fact not pure Pinot Blanc at all, as most are blends
made with 50% or more of Auxerrois,
another variety altogether (100% Pinot
Blanc bottlings in Alsace are rare). As such, these wines should not be
viewed as examples of what Pinot Bianco
can deliver.<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1485871926406-A+closeup+of+some+of+the+oder+wines+in+the+tasting+copy.JPG"> A closeup of some of the older wines in the tastingTerlano – A Perfect
Home for Pinot BiancoTerlano’s soils are mainly composed of porphyry and
volcanic elements, with a strong presence of sand and gravel. Pink porphyry
rock, in both its quartzite and granitic forms, is especially typical of the
Terlano area (but rare elsewhere in Italy), its reddish coloration due to the
iron concentration in the soil. Its presence, along with a high content of sand
(roughly 60%), means that this is very nutrient-poor soil that diminishes the
vines’ inherent vigor, which is obviously a good thing with Pinot Bianco. Clearly,
Terlano is an outstanding example of an ideal match of grape variety and
environment. The potentially generous Pinot Bianco variety finds itself
perfectly at home in Terlano’s poor soils, where it tends to give mineral-rich
wines that have uncommon concentration and staying power. In fact, the co-op is
now looking into using slightly more vigorous rootstocks (such as 420A) than it
has previously, because with the increasing age of the vines, yields are
becoming almost too small, and the winery’s goal is to make wines that are not
just concentrated and age-worthy, but also refined and easy to drink.


























Terlano is also a well-ventilated area, with the Ora
del Garda wind blowing north-ward from Lake Garda helping the grapes ripen
fully, while night-time winds blowing south from the Alps moderate temperatures
and preserve aromatics. This wealth of breezes also helps to greatly decrease
disease pressures, which are always a potential problem with Pinot Bianco.
Pinot Bianco at Terlano is harvested roughly between September 20 and
mid-October, depending on the vintage and on the altitude at which the vines
grow.<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1485871998819-winemaker+rudi+kofler+copy.JPG"> Winemaker Rudi Kofler Terlano’s Pinot
Bianco VorbergIn Italy, nobody does Pinot Bianco better than
Terlano. In fact, the variety has always been strongly associated with the
Terlano zone, and the co-op makes two different bottlings: the entry-level Weissburgunder
and their top-of-the-line Vorberg, a “reserve” that is Italy’s longest-lived
dry white wine. Vorberg means “in front of the mountain,” reflecting the fact that
the Pinot Bianco vines grow anywhere from 400 to almost 900 meters (1,312 – 2,953
feet) above sea level on the mountainous slopes of the Monzoccolo area of the
Terlano DOC (a cool environment is essential for this notoriously low-acid
grape).The vines average 25 years of age (Terlano’s oldest
vines are about 40 years old), and most are clonal selections from the famous
Laimburg school of viticulture and research center. Clones LB 16 and LB 18 are
the most planted at Terlano (LB 16 is a bit too productive and is being slowly
phased out); not surprisingly, over the years clonal selection has been
directed to obtaining Pinot Bianco clones that are not just lower yielding but
characterized by looser bunches as well. In order to reduce yields and get
tighter bunches, Terlano also practices two different green harvests: the
bunches are cut literally in half around the end of July (with the precise
timing depending on the vintage) even before veraison (the grape’s color change), while a second green harvest is
performed roughly three weeks before the grapes are to be picked, aiming for
yields of roughly 45 to 50 hectoliters per hectare. These two interventions serve
to reduce overall yields by at least 30%.&nbsp;Winemaker Rudi Kofler has been with the co-op since
1999 and has been Terlano’s head winemaker since 2002 (he actually lives in an
apartment within the co-op’s main building). Kofler studied at the Istituto
Tecnico in Ora, then apprenticed under Hans Terzer, kellermeister at San Michele Appiano and arguably one of Italy’s
greatest winemakers of all time. Kofler’s style is one of vertical, high-acid
wines. Grapes are manually harvested and selected, put through gentle whole-cluster
pressing, and fermented in large, temperature-controlled 30-hectoliter used oak
barrels. Kofler avoids skin contact and likes to age the Vorberg in neutral old
barrels ranging from 30 to 70 hectoliters in capacity for about a year (barriques at Terlano are used only for
the aging of red wines) and then keeps the wine on its fine lees in 2,500-liter
steel tanks for anywhere from 4 to 30 years. (Terlano now also periodically releases
small quantities of wines that have been kept at least 10 years on the lees as
part of their “Rarità,” or rarities, portfolio of library wines.) Depending on
the vintage, Vorberg may go through full, partial or no malolactic fermentation
at all.The first vintage to carry the Vorberg name was the
1993 (it was Stocker’s last wine before retiring) but a reserve-style Pinot
Bianco wine was in fact already being made decades earlier. Upon taking over
from Stocker as Terlano’s winemaker in 1994, Hartman Donà (the winemaker who preceded
Kofler), along with Terlano’s marketing and sales director Klaus Gasser, decided
it was time to give their top-quality Pinot Bianco a name. And so in 1993 the
best lots of Weissburgunder were renamed Vorberg, with the word “Riserva” added
in the 21st century to fully emphasize the wine’s age-ability. The addition of
“Riserva” was deemed necessary because until recently virtually nobody in Italy
wanted to buy white wines that were more than a couple years old; in fact,
Gasser told me that anything older would go unsold. By adding “Riserva” to the
wine’s name, the folks at Terlano were able to get Italians to try the white
wine with a little age on it. In fact, Vorberg almost always shows best about
four to five years—at the least—after the vintage date.






































The wines in this report were tasted at Cantina
Terlano in October 2016, except for the 2004 and 1979, two excellent vintages
that I bought on release and pulled from my cellar especially for this tasting.
All of the wines were in pristine condition. Remarkably, for a series of older wines,
only one bottle showed signs of cork-related taint. The wines improved greatly
with aeration, so don’t hesitate to let them develop in your glass.<a target="_blank" href="http://vinous.com/wines?sort%5Bdirection%5D=asc&amp;sort%5Bname%5D=id&amp;wine_filter%5Barticle_id%5D=1570&amp;wine_filter%5Bproducer_id%5D=2725&amp;producer=true">See All the Wines
from Youngest to Oldest</a>You Might Also Enjoy<a target="_blank" href="http://vinous.com/articles/miani-s-friulano-filip-and-buri-1991-2014-jan-2017">Miani’s Friulano Filip and
Buri: 1991-2014</a>, Ian D’Agata, January 2017<a target="_blank" href="http://vinous.com/articles/benito-ferrara-greco-di-tufo-vigna-cicogna-2008-2015">Benito Ferrara Greco di Tufo
Vigna Cicogna: 2008-2015</a>, Ian D’Agata November 2016<a target="_blank" href="http://vinous.com/articles/norman-hardie-chardonnay-vertical-2006-2014-nov-2016">Norman Hardie Chardonnay
Vertical: 2006-2014</a>, Ian D’Agata November 2016<a target="_blank" href="http://vinous.com/articles/weinbach-riesling-schlossberg-cuvee-ste-catherine-1990-2011-nov-2016">Weinbach
Riesling Schlossberg Cuvée Ste. Catherine: 1990-2011</a>, Ian D’Agata November
2016<a target="_blank" href="http://vinous.com/articles/tawse-chardonnay-quarry-road-2006-2013-aug-2016">Tawse Chardonnay Quarry Road:
2006-2013</a>, Ian D’Agata August 2016<a target="_blank" href="http://vinous.com/articles/zind-humbrecht-s-pinot-gris-clos-saint-urbain-rangen-de-thann-1983-2013-jun-2016">Zind-Humbrecht’s Pinot Gris
Clos Saint Urbain Rangen de Thann 1983-2013</a>, Ian D’Agata June 2016<a target="_blank" href="http://vinous.com/articles/vertical-tasting-of-domaine-dirler-cade-s-sylvaner-may-2016">Vertical Tasting of Domaine
Dirler-Cadé’s Sylvaner</a>, Ian D’Agata May 2016&nbsp;






















































<a target="_blank" href="http://vinous.com/multimedia/in-the-cellar-with-cantina-terlano-s-klaus-gasser-mar-2014">Multimedia:
In the cellar with Cantina di Terlano’s Klaus Gasser</a>, Antonio Galloni March
2014

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