Pinot Bianco, Cantina Terlano

Imagine crisp mountain pears and green apples tossed with a squeeze of lemon, then sprinkled with crushed rock dust. That’s this wine. Sleek, nervy, and capped off with a faint almond bitterness that keeps you coming back for another sip. 2023 had sunny days and cool nights — the perfect recipe for Pinot Bianco that’s both ripe and razor-sharp.

It is fermented in mostly stainless steel, preserving the grape’s snap, with a touch of lees aging for texture. Terlano doesn’t treat Pinot Bianco as a simple quaffer; they craft it like a fine Burgundy white. They age select Pinot Bianco bottlings for decades to prove the grape can rival Chardonnay’s staying power. If you’ve only known Pinot Bianco as ‘light and simple,’ this wine rewrites the script.

Cantina Terlano is a 130-member cooperative founded in 1893. They farm some of Alto Adige’s steepest, most dramatic vineyards, planted on porphyry rock that gives their wines that distinctive salty-mineral edge.