Again, I am so excited by this beautiful wine. The Cantina Terlano 2020 Alto Adige Terlano Sauvignon Quarz (with 58,000 bottles made) is always one of those bottles I bring to the table when I am lucky enough to have it in the day's tasting lineup. This vintage is especially fragrant and citrusy with passion fruit, unripe nectarine, crushed quartz (which gives inspiration to the wine's name) and hints of floral bergamot.

With fruit from high mountain vineyards, this is a brilliant wine, and I mean that both literally and figuratively. Luminous and bright, the 2019 Alto Adige Terlano Sauvignon Quarz sparkles and shines with passion fruit, jasmine, tropical tones, wild sage and curry leaf. There's even a touch of freshly milled white pepper. This is Italian Sauvignon Blanc in all its glory, and, as always, Cantina Terlano shows a deft winemaking hand to guide the grape's natural aromas but also to render a most elegant interpretation. 2019 was an interesting growing season there, with cold, heavy rains in March, a very sunny and warmer May followed by a relatively cool June, and then a hotter summer, but it all turned out great for this vintage of 60,000 bottles.

The 2018 Alto Adige Terlano Sauvignon Quarz hits it out of the ballpark. If you love Sauvignon Blanc, you will love the varietal purity and freshness of this A-list expression. This wine opens to honey, passion fruit, sweet almond, green papaya and garden greens. You get the intensity of Sauvignon Blanc without those pungent notes. And, you get the fleshiness and creaminess of the grape, only when made in the the most expert hands.

The 2017 Alto Adige Terlano Sauvignon Quarz is a wine that travels at two speeds. It is firm and compact on the one hand, but generous and large on the other. Those contrasting themes come from the youthful tension the wine emits now but also from the generous and texturally rich fiber that is associated with this warm and dry vintage. The Sauvignon Blanc grape shines brightly with varietal tones of passion fruit, summer peach and honeysuckle. This is a profoundly elegant expression from Northern Italy. Some 50,000 bottles were made.

The 2016 Alto Adige Terlano Sauvignon Quarz is drop-dead gorgeous. It appeals to Sauvignon Blanc enthusiasts, but also to detractors of the grape who may be put off by the pungent varietal notes you get in other parts of the world. This Alto Adige expression does not have that same nervous energy or primal raciness that you get in New Zealand, for example. Instead, this is an almost docile expression in comparison with lasting fruit tones of ripe peach, preserved lemon and exotic saffron. Quarz is aged on the lees, partially in stainless steel and partially in oak barrel. The mid-weight mouthfeel is supple and round. Some 60,000 bottles were made. I am curious to track this wine's evolution over the next ten years, because I am confident that it will stand strong.