Best White Wine of the Year – Terlano Quarz

Quartz Rich soil of the Suditrol

I realize we are only three-quarters through the year but I continue to be so impressed with a wine that I am announcing my white wine of the year early. I am convinced the greatest sauvignon blanc comes from Italy. The Terlano Quarz, named for the quartz-rich vineyard soil in the Suditrol area of Alto Adige. I have tasted this wine 6 times this year, including at a Beverly Hills trade event where a Master Sommelier compared the Quarz to the great Dageneau Sancerre Silex wine from France.

Brian's White Wine of The Year - Terlano Quarz 2010

The Terlan wins out because of the intensity in the bouquet and on the palate and the excitement it produces with its ripe citrus and sweet grass aromas, the 50 second finish…and the price. Golden straw in the glass, it has a complex nose of apricot, white peach, papaya, lime and red grapefruit, and herbal aromas of sweet lemon grass, mint and green tea. Flinty mineral tones emerge in the background along with a hint of salt air. On the palate, the wine offers up juicy vibrant fruit with a delicate yet deliberate minerality. This wine is pure class and elegance. Don’t be afraid to decant this for 20-30 minutes to allow its flavors to emerge.

Where else can you taste the greatest version of a varietal in the world for less than fifty dollars? I have put this wine to the test again and again, with the same result… It will not disappoint. My white wine of the year – 2010 Terlan Quarz

$49.99 – Available now!

-Posted by Brian Holowka, Santa Ana