Foradori

Elisabetta Foradori inherited her family's estate in 1984 at the age of nineteen, following the death of her father. What she inherited was a winery of local significance. What she built over the following decades became something else entirely — a reference point for biodynamic viticulture in northern Italy and a redefinition of what the Teroldego grape was capable of.

The conversion to biodynamic farming, completed under Demeter certification, was not a marketing repositioning. Foradori had spent years observing the relationship between soil health and wine character, and what she found — supported now by decades of evidence — was that the volcanic, sandy soils of the Campo Rotaliano responded to biodynamic practice with a precision and aromatic lift that conventional farming suppressed. The estate grows ancient Teroldego clones on pergola-trained vines in the flat gravel fields below the Dolomites, a landscape that looks unlike any other serious wine region in Europe.

The flagship Granato Vigneti delle Dolomiti has earned 96 points from Wine Advocate and a Trophy at Decanter World Wine Awards — marks that validate not only the farming philosophy but Foradori's willingness to age Teroldego in large neutral oak and amphora, allowing the grape to express something deeper than the light, early-drinking style the region once accepted as standard.

Foradori is one of those estates whose influence on a generation of Italian winemakers substantially exceeds its production volume.