Cantina Terlano Pinot Bianco 2018If Mercedes and Ferrari combined to make wine

Ok maybe the title was a little overreaching. You can't just compare wine to cars. But there's something to be found there–this wine we're offering is most certainly a compromise between German precision and Italian finesse.

I tasted this wine and said YES. One sip was all it took to convince me. When a wine hits on every level, you can't help but giddily enjoy it. And this wine has it all: beautiful aromatics, balanced fruit and earth, and a sleek, mouth-coating texture that leaves the wine there and lights your palate up.

This Cantina Terlano Pinot Bianco comes from high in the northern Italian Dolomites, one of the few places on earth growing grapes at elevated mountain altitudes. Growing in extreme alpine climates means cooler temperatures and brisk structure in the finished wines. French grapes like Pinot Blanc and Chardonnay have been grown in Northern Italy for hundreds of years. Due to Swiss, Austrian and German influence in the more northerly areas of Italy, these wines are often packaged in slender flute bottles and tend to be made with meticulously clean winemaking styles.

This Pinot Blanc is a perfect food wine. It's a perfect late-summer wine. It's a crispy, approachable white with a complex soul. Just the finish on this is stunning. Notes of white flowers, apricot pit, wet stone and fresh tarragon abound. It's at home with smoky white meat dishes. Think smoked chicken or pork, or any kind of grilled vegetables. Squash or pumpkin would hit lots of resonant notes here too, so think about this as a go-to fall white wine.

Sommeliers are huge fans of Cantina Terlano. They're easily one of the greatest white wine makers in Italy. Under the stewardship of Georg Eyrl, this winery has been making waves across the wine world. What's crazy is that this is a cooperative winery, essentially an organization formed by several grape growers, who share the winemaking facilities. Usually co-ops are not a recipe for success, but the bar for quality is set so high at Cantina Terlano that the finished wines are stellar. We hope you get a chance to try these!