Franco was surprised to hear from me today that, these days, I prefer to drink white wines...

First, it is the refreshment quality I look for. Then, something that I have been focusing for quite sometime: texture.

And here is where I think white wines can be very interesting.

In youth, a good white is vibrant, fresh, and with a certain "wet-stones-white-pepper-flyntiness" that many people call "minerality". Some are rather citrussy in aromatics, while others are floral & peachy. But for me, it is really the tension and the liveliness of the acidity that gets me interested. Even more so when the winemaker succeeded in preserving enough fruit concentration or worked with lees & subtle oak to give the wine a certain velvetiness. The feeling reminds me of the sensation when caressing the cheek of a new-born baby. The skin is tender and silky, yet the "baby-fat" offers a certain resistance, a certain fluffiness that is soft yet not soft at the same time....

With age, that tension has calmed down and the wine becomes rounder, more smooth, and more unctuous. The fruit freshness & concentration of youth has become not unlike the texture of baked fruit. Soft and almost chewy. The aromas are nuttier with notes reminiscent of honey & dried fruits. Yet, the acidity remains the same as in youth, lifting the wine, carrying it and giving it a certain ethereal quality. It is that interplay of roundness and unctuousness with liveliness & tension that makes a white wine interesting for me. I can keep such a wine forever on my palate without feeling tired of it. It stimulates at the same time as it soothes. It engages as much as it makes me dream...

At Cantina Terlan yesterday, we tasted fantastic wines, including a Pinot Blanc 2002 which was wonderfully toasty & velvety w/ a wonderful honeyed finish.

What struck my attention though was the Terlan 2012 Quarz Sauvignon Blanc. Here was a wonderfully fresh nose w/ delightful notes reminiscent of pine, alpine forest, and fresh air of the mountains. Very complex & finely interwoven w/ beautiful agrumes, and "minerality". The texture was tense. Crisp & lively. Surprisingly broad & caressing for a Sauvignon, testament to a wonderful fruit concentration strongly hinting at a very long ageing potential. Lovely finish, very long & sapid w/ much intensity & vibrancy. A very good wine. In fact, I would very very much like to revist this one in 10 years time....

— in Terlan, Italy.