Azienda Agricola Foradori

The story

The Clay Jars

At some point after returning to Mezzocorona, Elisabetta Foradori began carrying amphorae into the cellar. She had been watching what neutral oak did to her single-vineyard Teroldego parcels and wanted something different: more energy, more lift, a vessel that would let the wine breathe without contributing any flavour of its own. The ancient clay jars, made from fired terracotta, had not been standard Italian cellar equipment for centuries. Most producers in the 1990s and 2000s were moving in the opposite direction, toward new barriques or temperature-controlled stainless steel. Elisabetta went back to clay, becoming one of the first Italian natural vignerons to adopt amphorae widely. When Sgarzon and Morei came out of those jars, they carried an aromatic clarity and freshness that barrel-aged Teroldego did not. The clay vessels are still at work in the cellar today.

From the atlas

Azienda Agricola Foradori

At A Glance

The Producer

Elisabetta Foradori took over the family estate in Mezzocorona in 1984, at nineteen, after her father died. What she inherited was a 29-hectare property on the Campo Rotaliano plain in Trentino, northern Italy, centred on Teroldego, a thick-skinned red grape that most growers at the time sold as bulk wine without a producer name.

She chose a different direction. Over the following decades she converted the estate to biodynamic farming, mapped 15 distinct biotypes of Teroldego through massal selection, moved the cellar away from new oak toward neutral barrels and amphorae, and built a range that made Teroldego an internationally recognised grape. Her three children now work alongside her: Emilio manages wine production, Theo oversees business and commerce, Myrtha handles farming.

The estate produces roughly 50,000 bottles of its main Teroldego label annually, with smaller quantities of single-vineyard reds and a white range drawn from the same plain.

Place

Campo Rotaliano is a flat plain at the confluence of the Noce and Adige rivers in Trentino, the northernmost wine region in mainland Italy. It is the one place in Italy where Teroldego is recognised as an appellation grape, labelled Teroldego Rotaliano DOC.

The plain sits between mountains, and the temperature swings sharply between day and night through the growing season. That diurnal range slows the ripening of the thick-skinned Teroldego grape and keeps the aromatics intact: the violet and herb character that marks the variety comes partly from the slow, cool nights rather than from the soil alone. The plain is also the reason the wine is labelled the way it is: Teroldego without the Campo Rotaliano address is a different grape in a different context.

Soil And Site

The soils on Campo Rotaliano are alluvial: gravel, sand, and some clay deposited by the Noce and Adige rivers over centuries. They drain quickly and hold warmth through the day. The mineral content from the river gravels feeds through into the wine as a saline note on the finish, a quality more marked at Foradori than in versions of Teroldego grown on heavier clay soils elsewhere in Trentino.

The oldest vines on the estate are three old pergola-trained parcels averaging 70 years in age. These go into Granato. The younger vines, trained on both pergola and guyot systems, supply the entry-level Foradori Teroldego.

Story

When Elisabetta graduated from the oenology school at S.Michele all'Adige and came back to Mezzocorona in 1984, Teroldego had a poor reputation. It was grown for volume, sold in demijohns to local buyers, and rarely appeared with a producer's name on the label. The grape itself was treated as interchangeable: clone planted alongside clone, without attention to the variation within the old vineyards.

Elisabetta spent years walking those vineyards vine by vine. She observed differences in leaf shape, cluster size, berry skin thickness, and ripening rhythm, then propagated from the plants she identified as distinct. Over time she mapped 15 different biotypes of Teroldego, a slow act of recovery that changed what the grape could produce. Those biotypes now form the massal selections planted across the estate and account for the variation in character from parcel to parcel.

By 2002 the estate moved to biodynamic farming practices, a shift that reconnected the work in the vineyard to the soil rather than to conventional inputs. The cellar followed: Elisabetta moved away from new oak and toward neutral barrels and, eventually, amphorae. Each change was a deliberate narrowing of the gap between what Campo Rotaliano produces and what ends up in the bottle.

Vineyards And Cellar

The 29-hectare estate is farmed biodynamically. Vine training is a mix of pergola and guyot, depending on the parcel and vine age. No synthetic inputs. The massal selections from Elisabetta's biotype mapping are propagated within the estate rather than sourced from commercial nurseries, which keeps the planting material tied to the original Campo Rotaliano population.

The entry Foradori Teroldego is fermented in cement tanks and aged 12 months in a combination of barrel and cement. Granato is fermented with native yeast only and aged approximately 15 months in neutral oak. No new oak appears in any wine in the current range.

Sgarzon and Morei are both aged in amphora, the ancient clay vessels Elisabetta adopted when she wanted more energy and lift from the single-vineyard parcels than neutral oak was providing. The amphora keeps the wine in a gas-permeable, temperature-stable environment without contributing any flavour of its own. Amphora aging brings more energy and lift than traditional oak aging.

Wines

The Teroldego range moves through four expressions from everyday to old-vine flagship.

Foradori Teroldego is the entry point: 100% Teroldego from younger pergola and guyot vines on the alluvial gravel and sand of Campo Rotaliano. Fermented in cement, aged 12 months in barrel and cement. Dark fruit, violet, and herb character with the saline mineral finish the plain's soils produce. 50,000 bottles annually.

Sgarzon is a single-vineyard amphora-aged Teroldego. Red fruit rather than dark blue, rose-driven aromatics rather than violet, and a soft tannic build that finishes with a saline cut. Lighter and more delicate than the other single-vineyard reds, closer in weight to a cool-climate Pinot Noir.

Morei is the other amphora-aged single vineyard. Dark blue fruit: black plum, blackberry, graphite, and crushed herbs. Fuller and more layered than Sgarzon, with the lift and energy the amphora delivers, and a deeper herbal note running through the finish.

Granato is the flagship. Sourced from three old pergola vineyards averaging 70 years in age. Fermented with native yeast, aged approximately 15 months in neutral oak. Blackberry, pomegranate, and crushed violet on the nose. More tannic than the amphora wines, with the depth and length that comes from old roots in gravel and sand.

The white range draws from the same 29 hectares. Manzoni Bianco, a cross of Riesling and Pinot Blanc developed at the nearby S.Michele school and rarely grown outside Trentino, sits at the centre of it. Nosiola and Pinot Grigio complete the white plantings, all farmed biodynamically on Campo Rotaliano.

In The Glass

Across the Teroldego range the aromatic signature is consistent: dark fruit, violet, herbs, and a saline mineral note on the finish that comes from the gravel soils and river minerals. What changes between bottles is the weight, the fruit register, and the way the wine was aged.

Sgarzon opens with red cherry and rose, not the dark fruit of Granato or Morei. The tannins are soft and the finish arrives with that characteristic saline snap. It drinks earlier and lighter than the other single-vineyard reds.

Morei pours darker: black plum and blackberry on the nose, graphite underneath, crushed herbs on the palate. The amphora aging keeps it energetic and lifted without adding any wood flavour. Fuller in the mouth than Sgarzon, with a longer, more herb-inflected finish.

Granato comes from older wood and older vines. The nose is blackberry and pomegranate with crushed violet, and the mouth shows more tannin grip and more concentration than either amphora wine. The neutral oak adds no flavour but extends the finish and gives the wine enough frame to develop over years in bottle. In vintages with limited summer light, such as 2023, the whole Teroldego range shifts toward a more herbal, spicy register as the grape's aromatic character sharpens.

A Bottle To Understand It

Start with Granato. It is sourced from the three oldest parcels on the estate, pergola-trained vines that average 70 years, their roots deep in the gravel and sand of Campo Rotaliano. The wine is fermented with native yeast and aged 15 months in neutral oak, which adds depth and frame without adding any flavour of its own.

In the glass it delivers blackberry, pomegranate, and crushed violet on the nose, with firm tannin and a long saline finish in the mouth. It is the wine that made the estate's international reputation and the one that most clearly shows what old Teroldego on this particular plain can produce. Drink it to understand the grape before moving to the amphora wines.

Anecdote

At some point in the years after her arrival back in Mezzocorona, Elisabetta Foradori began carrying amphorae into the cellar. She had been watching what neutral oak did to her single-vineyard Teroldego parcels and wanted something different: more energy, more lift, a vessel that would let the wine breathe without contributing any flavour of its own. The ancient clay jars, made from fired terracotta and sealed with beeswax, had not been standard Italian cellar equipment for centuries. Most producers in the 1990s and 2000s were moving in the opposite direction, toward new barriques or temperature-controlled stainless steel. Elisabetta went back to clay. She became one of the first Italian natural vignerons to adopt amphorae widely, and when Sgarzon and Morei came out of those jars, they carried an aromatic clarity and freshness that barrel-aged Teroldego did not. The clay vessels are still at work in the cellar in Mezzocorona.

Final Word

Foradori is what happens when a producer decides that a local grape deserves to be understood through its vineyards and cellar. Teroldego went from a bulk red sold without a name to an age-worthy, internationally recognised variety because Elisabetta Foradori spent forty years working in the vineyard and the cellar. The wines are a direct record of that work.

Sources

• https://www.agricolaforadori.com/en/the-winery/
• https://oraziocampoli.com/foradori-redefining-teroldego-in-the-dolomites/
• https://louisdressner.com/producers/foradori
• https://www.agricolaforadori.com/en/wines/
• https://primalwine.com/blogs/natural-wine-producers-primal-wine/elisabetta-foradori
• https://www.agricolaforadori.com/en/wines/foradori/