Almost 15 years after the harvest, the 2000 Alto Adige Terlano Chardonnay is a monumental achievement and a living testament to the aging potential of Italian white wines. This wine is built to last and I'd venture that it could withstand another decade of aging. At this point in its evolution, the wine still shows fruit tones with lemon curd, dried apricot and poached pear. But it also exhibits tertiary aromas of chestnut honey, white licorice and crushed mineral that evoke the startling white rocks of the Dolomites. With 12 months of oak aging in oak cask, the wine is not overloaded with wood tones. In fact, it speaks purely of Chardonnay and shows nothing but varietal character.