As a wine buyer, one is exposed to a lot of wine. Over the last 13 years at my Valley restaurant, FnB, I’ve tasted thousands of new, strange wines. Two years ago, a distributor brought me a wine from Trentino-Alto-Adige, a wine region to the northeast of Italy. The grape was Teroldego from Azienda Agricola Foradori, and the wine was inky and deeply hued. It had the weight and gravitas of a burly Cabernet Sauvignon. The nose was full of dark berry aromas with hints of cinnamon and pepper, and it was spellbinding. On the palate, those aromas carried on through, giving way to herbs and a touch of chocolate. I had never had an Italian red with this much accessible fruit and robust body.
Apparently, the first time that Teroldego officially appeared in a document was back in 1383, when a barrel was used to pay interest on a loan. Italy produces about 98 percent of the world’s, the U.S. about 1 percent, while Brazil, Australia, Argentina and Canada split the rest.
At Los Milics Vineyards, we have quite a bit of Teroldego, grafted last year. Unbeknownst to me, Kent Callaghan of Callaghan Vineyards also planted some last year. Both of us were surprised. I asked Kent why he planted the varietal. Apparently he was hanging out with the late Jim Clendenen of Au Bon Climat years ago and Jim mentioned how great it was in terms of yield and quality. Also, “the 2017 House Mountain Vineyard Teroldego from Page Springs Cellars was RFG,” he says. I‘ll let you figure out that acronym.
At our Los Milics vineyard in Elgin, Teroldego was the first varietal in 2022 to go through veraison – when the grape begins to turn red in color – and is quick to ripen. We’re super excited to taste the results and make it part of the Arizona wine conversation.
