Who would ever think of aging a white wine for 24 years on lees in large stainless steel vats at a cold temperature and then bottling it? That’s exactly what the Alto Adige winery Cantina Terlano did, and the wine is fantastic.
“We have been doing this type of wine for a long time now,” said Klaus Gasser, the sales and marketing manager for Cantina Terlano. His winery is a cooperative of 143 vine growers in the northeastern Italian region, which borders Austria and is also known as South Tyrol. Terlano has been making wine since 1893, mostly from grapes grown in glorious Alpine vineyards. They have 190 hectares of vineyards in total.
Gasser brought the bottle of Cantina Terlano Alto Adige Terlaner Rarity 1991 this week during a tasting of their current releases. The white showed a beautiful straw color with aromas of crushed seashells and a briny undertone as well as lemon, apple, flint and gunpowder. It was medium bodied with fresh, zesty acidity that highlighted the clean and vivid fruit. It was exciting to drink.
Aging wine on lees is common in the world of winemaking, particularly for whites. The process in vats, barrels or casks whereby the wine is in contact with dead yeast, grape material and other solids following fermentation can infuse the wine with special aromatic qualities as well as richer flavors and textures. “This process is a specialty of Terlano,” Gasser said.
The Terlaner, regardless of its age, is usually a blend of 60 percent pinot bianco, 30 percent chardonnay and 10 percent sauvignon blanc. The blend gives a complex aroma as well as flavors and texture with the added dimension of long-term lees aging in stainless steel, cylindrical vats that hold 2,500 liters of white wine. They act like big, giant glass bottles. Terlano still has vintages dating back to 1979 aging in vats deep in their cellars.
“I know it’s amazing to have these long-aged fresh wines,” Gasser said as we sipped the 1991 over lunch. “We are lucky to have them.”
– James Suckling, Editor/Chairman
