Elisabetta Foradori is a big deal with a big heart. Her wines are the result of not submitting to a world of dull, mass produced, pallid wine. They are the result of a long journey to achieve true biodiversity in the vineyard, genetic diversity of her beloved teroldego grape, and to capture and express the voice of her terroir. She is sincere, dedicated- she sets a standard for winemaking that many aspire to meet. When young winemakers say they look up to Foradori, it is because of the decades of tireless effort she has put into her land and her teroldego.

Grown primarily in Trentino’s Campo Rotaliano region in the northeast of Italy and rarely seen elsewhere, it’s a somewhat obscure grape- a genetic relative of Syrah and perhaps Pinot Noir. It is defined by its strength and structure, combined with plentiful juicy, dark fruit, subtle spice, and soft tannins.

At the age of 19, following the sudden passing of her father, she took over the family winery out of a sense of duty. As a young winemaker, she sought technical perfection, aiming to produce flawless wines. While she was committed to teroldego, she lost her connection to the land. The state of winemaking production in the region at the time was one of quantity over quality, and the teroldego clone of the area, was a prime example of that. It had lost its character. Elisabetta, through massal selection, sought to restore the genetic diversity of this indigenous grape. Through this process, she dove deep into the history of teroldego, and came out the other side a changed person. She needed to watch and listen to the earth.

The idea of creating a light Teroldego to celebrate the summer was something that interested us for some time but it wasn’t until the hail storms of August 2017, which destroyed 40% of our harvest that we decided to have a go. From the small amount of fruit harvested from the damaged vines we were able to piece together a number of vinification tests with short maceration processes to make Lezèr. We undertook various batch tests in amphorae, wood, cement and steel, never leaving the grapes on the skins for more than 24 hours.
This wine was born with the spirit of experimentation and continues to develop in this way.
Overseeing the various developments that take place in each vintage, each year we experiment with the addition of full bunches and changing containers, along with tweaking our techniques and timings for short maceration.