Foradori

Whole grapes in the cellar

Whole grapes give Emilio Zierock, winemaker at Foradori in Mezzolombardo, a direct measure of the fruit before it becomes wine. Since 2013, he has been in charge of winemaking at the vineyards, with culture inside his remit as well as cellar decisions. That pairing matters here because the work is not separated into performance and production; the vineyard, the cellar, and the way the house receives people all belong to the same discipline. Zierock’s account of the work stays close to touch. After a degree in philosophy, he has said he needed to touch the fruit of his work with his own hands, and the wines follow that premise rather than a language of polish. His stated interest is the integrity of fruit, especially the effort to ferment whole grapes and carry their message into the glass. At Foradori, that makes the bench-side work physical before it is interpretive. The maker handles the material first, then lets the vintage keep speaking after the pour.

Teroldego, amphora, and biodynamic ground

The program at Foradori sits on Campo Rotaliano alluvial soils, with Teroldego Rotaliano at its center and a wider bench of Nosiola, Pinot Grigio, Manzoni Bianco, Schiava, and Lagrein around it. The house works biodynamically and organically, across 28-29 hectares, at a scale of 160,000-180,000 bottles a year. Those figures give the place its proportion: large enough for a full estate language, small enough that decisions in the vineyard and cellar still read as decisions made by specific hands. Teroldego is the historic pressure point, an indigenous grape whose revival here is tied to farming and to cellar method. Amphora aging is part of that method, especially where skin contact and texture need time without being pushed toward the grammar of oak. The focus remains on still red wine and skin-contact work, with the cellar acting less like a place of correction than a place of duration. Gzon, named among Zierock’s signature wines, carries that line clearly: fruit present, texture in view, and movement left in the glass.

Raw earth and constant air

The cellar keeps its own tempo. Raw earth holds the space at constant temperature and humidity, and the room stays quiet enough for small changes to matter: the feel of a vessel, the surface of a wine, the pause before a decision. Outside, the vineyards sit in Campo Rotaliano with the Dolomites in view, not as scenery added after the fact but as the physical frame of the work. The tasting room receives the wines through guided tasting, though the important hospitality is not theatrical. It is proximity to the method. In a place organized around fruit integrity, the glass does not close the argument, and Zierock says wine “always moves and changes in the glass”; Teroldego from Campo Rotaliano is carried through the Foradori cellar into Gzon.