A blend of mostly Pinot Bianco (75%) with smaller parts Chardonnay (22%) and Sauvignon Blanc (3%), the 2016 Alto Adige Terlaner I Grand Cuvée Primo opens to a deep golden color with very pale greenish highlights. There's an equal balance of rich stone fruit aromas and smoky toasted notes that merge with beautiful intensity and harmony. This is a medium-weight white offering an ample base from which the wine can grow in intensity and balance the longer it warms in the glass. It promises a very long aging future ahead. it ages on the lees for 12 months before its commercial release. With only 4,000 bottles produced, this is a wine well worth seeking.

If you were to condense the excellence of Alto Adige winemaking and squeeze it into a single bottle, the Cantina Terlano 2006 Alto Adige Terlano Pinot Bianco Rarity would be that bottle. This is indeed one of the greatest achievements in vino italiano, and it will break any preconceived notions one might have about Italian white wines. It's like the mild thumping of a movie soundtrack that suddenly explodes into thundering surround-sound music. This wine hits sixth gear before it even gets onto the autostrada. The aromas are seductive and impeccably balanced, with passion and exotic fruits that segue to more ethereal tones of toasted almond and crushed mountain stone or slate. The wine is aged for ten years in a single stainless steel vat (rigorously protected from oxygen) and is released 13 years after the harvest. There's nothing left for me to say here other than congratulations on this exceptional creation. A mere 3,500 do make this a true rarity.

I admit that after I tasted this wine for work, I brought the remnants of the bottle up to my Roman terrace (on one of the first warm days of early spring) and polished off the rest of the bottle with friends. The 2016 Alto Adige Terlano Pinot Bianco Riserva Vorberg is just that kind of wine: It invites you to share its bounty and beauty with the people you most respect and admire. I just love this wine, and this is one of the best vintages I have tasted. Very few Italian dry white wines have scored this high, but this is a sure celebrity. This Riserva offers excellent Pinot Bianco concentration with generous layers of stone fruit, pear and poached apple. The finish is long and smooth. Even if you leave the bottle open for a long time, it evolves, but never oxidizes. The wine undergoes both fermentations in oak and then ages on the lees in oak barrel for 12 months. Some 55,000 bottles were created. Compared to the other top-shelf wines from Cantina Terlano, this is the best value of all.

Lean and light in appearance, the 2016 Alto Adige Pinot Noir Riserva Monticol is a very elegant and clear expression. There is some ripe fruit nuance here on the nose, with dark, ripe cherry and blackberry and later some raspberry. It has an easy mouthfeel and even more ripeness in the mouth. This graceful and tight Pinot would make for a nice appetizer with wild mushroom and burrata crostini. Some 35,000 bottles were made.

This is the wine that best embodies the identity and personality of this iconic farming cooperative in Alto Adige. The 2018 Alto Adige Terlano Cuvèe is a blend of 60% Pinot Bianco, 30% Chardonnay and 10% Sauvignon Blanc. In the past, I have identified this wine as "Terlano Classico." But in keeping with the actual script on the front label, I have changed its name to Terlano Cuvèe instead. These three varieties reach enormous harmony and balance. The wine's texture is silky and satiny. There is plenty of support for aromas of tropical and passion fruit, peach, pear and sweet almond. It's another lovely pairing with crab or lobster. With 220,000 bottles made, this is one of the best white wine best buys in Italy today.

Bright and shiny, the 2017 Alto Adige Terlano Chardonnay Kreuth is a medium-bodied wine with the heft and natural density to pair with white meat or lobster with melted butter. This silky expression produces rich aromas of lemon curd, baked apricot, toasted almond and fragrant passion fruit. It has a nice creamy texture that wraps thickly over the palate. Some 65,000 bottles were made.

The 2016 Alto Adige Lagrein Riserva Porphyr pours from the bottle with deep and dark intensity. Raw cherry and blackberry notes pop out from the big, ripe and dark fruit. There's good dimension to this Lagrein, with lots of inky black fruit and nuance. It's a bit raw. I'm being generous with my drinking window here, and it's probably better to just enjoy this now with a pot roast. The wine ages in barrique for 18 months, with one-third new oak. Some 22,000 bottles were produced.

Cantina Terlano's 2018 Alto Adige Terlaner Sauvignon Winkl (with an ample 240,000 bottles made) is a beautifully articulate and forthcoming expression that shows the very best of Italian Sauvignon Blanc. It offers a case study as to what makes this grape taste different than, say, competing expressions from the New World or New Zealand. This fragrant grape tends to be less pungent and sharp in Italy, focusing instead on softer tones of summer peach, preserved lemon and passion fruit. The effect is silky, smooth and absolutely delicious.

Tilled soil and other slightly earthy tones mark the 2016 Alto Adige Lagrein Riserva Gries. It's a rustic approach, showing dark, ripe and vibrant black fruit and a lot of thickness. However, there is not much depth to this Langrein, it's actually quite shallow and immediate, keeping in line with the variety. The wine is aged in various sized oak vessels, both new and used. It's a good pick for a simple gnocchi and tomato sauce. Some 45,000 bottles were made.