2012 Ampeleia 'Ampeleia' Costa Toscana IGT 750 ml

From Trentino to Tuscany: Elisabetta Foradori’s Journey to the Top

It’s a sad but all-too-familiar tale in the world of winemaking. A child is thrust too soon into the family business upon the death of a beloved parent. At age 15, Elisabetta Foradori — now known the world over as one of Italy’s most influential women winemakers — lost her father to cancer, and reluctantly plunged into the family vineyards in the shadow of the Dolemites. The story of how Elisabetta would come to earn 94 points for a “terrific” 2012 Cabernet Franc/Sangiovese blend on the Tuscan coast can’t be told without a nod to her singular work reviving a neglected and obscure grape — Teroldego.

The once-forgotten grape native to Northern Italy has undergone something of a renaissance in the last few decades, and that all starts with Elisabetta. Separating selections of Teroldego into 15 blocks with the diligence of a scientist, Elisabetta cultivated a wine off her Trentino vines that stunned the world’s wine critics. Robert Parker, Antonio Galloni, and Eric Asimov of The New York Times all took turns lavishing praise on the fruit of her labors. Her Teroldego leapt onto the annual list of 100 top Italian wines compiled by James Suckling, the longtime Wine Spectator Italian wine guru. Her farming counsel was sought by the superstars of Italian wine, from the Banfis to the Antinoris.

Along the way, Elisabetta’s close attention to her vines convinced her of the value of biodynamic farming. By 2002, she had transitioned her Trentino-Alto Adige estate to biodynamic. But her burgeoning interest in biodiversity and sustainable farming drew her eye to Maremma, where she found an estate split between sheep pasture, promising vineyards, rocky fields, Mediterranean scrub, and lush holm-oak forest.

Azienda Ampeleia is her passion project. Surrounded by apple and chestnut trees, it’s a biodynamic winemaker’s paradise, complete with livestock on the estate. Three hundred acres an hour west of Montalcino and about an hour south of Bolgheri contain 86 acres of vines, numerous soil types, and three distinct microclimates attuned to the change in altitude.

The Cabernet Franc and Sangiovese are planted on rolling hills 700 to 1,900 feet above sea level, exposed to constant breezes off the nearby Tyrrhenian Sea and hills of central Tuscany. In 2014, they yielded what Galloni called a “deep, layered and incredibly vivid” with “an intriguing mélange of sweet plum, black cherry,” likely a result of cement-tank aging and “spice and new leather” from 16 months in oak. Galloni scored this “terrific” wine at 94 points — his highest score for an under-$40 Italian red in 2012.

Just 300 bottles are up for grabs at $39/bottle, definitely NOT to be missed!