Foradori Manzoni Bianco Fontanasanta 2025

The Land

Manzoni Bianco isn't an ancient Italian variety. It's a 20th-century crossing of Riesling and Pinot Bianco, bred in the 1930s at an agricultural school in the Veneto, which makes Fontanasanta something of an outlier in a Foradori range built almost entirely around Teroldego. The vineyard sits on a hillside above Trento, a different terroir entirely from the valley floor of Campo Rotaliano, with five hectares of calcareous clay soil at higher elevation. Warm days and cool nights slow ripening into late September, giving the grape time to hold onto acidity. It is the Foradori estate's answer to what its biodynamic farming looks like applied to a variety that isn't Teroldego.

The Wine

100% Manzoni Bianco, fermented on the skins in cement tanks with native yeast, then aged seven months in acacia casks rather than oak, a choice that adds texture without adding overt wood flavor. Bottled without filtration. 2025 brought a mild spring that pushed rapid, even flowering across Trentino-Alto Adige, a sunny June, and a cooler, wetter July that kept acidity intact through ripening, producing whites across the region with lighter body, lower alcohol, and real freshness. This is not a wine built for immediate drinking: Foradori's own estate notes say Fontanasanta needs at least three years past harvest to show its full character. Expect real textural grip from the skin contact, orchard fruit and beeswax, and a long, saline finish.

The People

Elisabetta Foradori is best known for reviving Teroldego in Campo Rotaliano, but Fontanasanta reflects the same instincts applied to a hillside site above Trento entirely apart from the home estate. She took over her father's business in 1984 at 19, converted the whole property to certified biodynamic farming by 2002, and has spent decades treating each parcel as its own project rather than folding everything into a house style. Fontanasanta is farmed and vinified with the same skin contact, native yeast, and minimal intervention that defines the Teroldego bottlings, proof that her approach isn't tied to one grape or one piece of ground. It is a small, patient project inside a larger body of work built on patience.

Food Pairing

Fontanasanta's texture and skin-contact grip make it more food-friendly than a typical crisp white. Try it with roast chicken with fennel and orange, a wedge of aged pecorino, grilled branzino with herbs, or a mushroom and taleggio tart. Its beeswax and orchard fruit character pairs naturally with anything nutty or slightly funky, while the saline finish keeps richer dishes in check. Give it a few minutes of air before pouring; this is a wine that opens up rather than one you drink cold and fast.