Teroldego

Teroldego is grown almost exclusively on the Campo Rotaliano, a small triangular gravel plain in Trentino where the Noce river meets the Adige — an area of a few hundred hectares that has been described as the most perfect vineyard in Italy, a phrase attributed to the nineteenth-century writer Cesare Battisti.

The soil is deep alluvial gravel and sand, free-draining and poor, and the vines are traditionally trained on the pergola trentina. Yields were historically high and much of the wine was ordinary; the variety's modern reputation was built by a small number of producers, above all Elisabetta Foradori, who undertook a massaie selection of old vines to recover genetic diversity lost to a few high-yielding clones.

The wine is deeply coloured with dark berry fruit — blackberry, black cherry, damson — and notes of violet, liquorice, pine and a savoury, faintly tarry edge. Acidity is fresh, tannins are present but not aggressive, and there is often a distinct alpine herbal quality.

It is a parent of Lagrein and a relative of Syrah, and the family resemblance in the peppery, dark-fruited profile is noticeable.

Made simply it is a juicy, immediately appealing red for early drinking. Made from low-yielding old vines and aged in large wood or amphorae it becomes something considerably more serious, with real depth and the capacity to age a decade.

It is barely planted outside Trentino.