2002 Radikon Oslavje Bianco Friuli-Venezia Giulia Italy. 13.5% alcohol; 40% Chardonnay, 30% Pinot Grigio and 30% Sauvignon. $37.79 at Appellation Wine and Sprits, New York City. Imported by Louis/Dressner, New York, NY.
I found the reviews irresistible, and the wine even more irresistible. Deep golden pink color, medium hue, soaring aromas of fruit, spice, minerals, complex fruit flavors, good acidity, long finish. Strong EGA. Like other tasters, I found it impossible to describe this wine accurately. Lovely wine, and strongly recommended despite the price. 5*.
Regards, Bob
Notes:
Appellation: "This wine is magnificently strange. From the bottle (500 ml) to the blend of grapes - Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio, and Sauvignon Blanc - to the deep golden color. Enjoy with cheese, poultry, and pork." http://www.shop.appellationnyc.com/
Eric Asimov, The Pour: The 2002 Radikon Oslavje Bianco is about as unconventional as it gets, right down to the 500-ml. bottle it comes in, with its narrow neck and cute l’il cork. (I wish I could find a good picture to link to.) Like many winemakers in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region in Northeast Italy Stanislao Radikon is relentlessly experimental and makes fascinating wines. This is a bianco in name only – it’s actually kind of a hazy pink, almost cidery, and while it may seem on first whiff oxidized the opposite is true. Through exacting techniques Radikon is able to make wines resistant to oxidation, even though he uses no sulfur dioxide to stabilize the wine.
I love this wine! It embodies all the joy in wine drinking, where no matter how many times you swirl, sniff and taste you cannot pin down what’s in the glass. What’s more it’s absolutely delicious and great with food. But there’s more to it than that. http://thepour.blogs.nytimes.com/
Italian Wine Merchants: Radikon’s Oslavje bottling is a full-bodied and intense blend of Chardonnay (40%), Pinot Grigio (30%), and Sauvignon (30%). It achieves a deep yellow, almost golden color, and the aromas and tasting profile are complex, rooted in pronounced fruit flavors imbued by a savory quality.
While a true traditionalist, Radikon does not shy away from innovative means to ensure his wines may realize their potential maturation. In efforts to identify the cork type best suited to the aging of his wines, he discovered that the ideal cork possessed thinner strands than those present in the corks used for 750-milliliter bottles. In order to maximize the use of this cork, Radikon instituted the development of a bottle shape that complemented the width of the cork. He debuted 1-liter and half-liter bottles with a narrow neck in the 2002 vintage—a move that increased ’02’s disarmingly bold attitude.
Radikon’s viticultural practices include dense planting and an intensive pruning regimen, efforts that are maximized by a rigorous process of selection. All Radikon wines are essentially vinified in accordance with the same noninterventionist protocol. The standard regime entails an extended 30-day maceration period in Slavonian oak vats (that are assembled in Conegliano), a process that is conducted without temperature control. Thereafter, the wine is aged in large Slavonian botti for approximately three years prior to bottling. http://www.italianwinemerchantstore.com/
Louis/Dressner: Stanko Radikon is a maverick in a land of mavericks. The town of Oslavia, on a relatively tiny stretch of hills north of the border town of Gorizia in the Isonzo zone of Friuli, is home to a number of talented and individualistic wine makers. From Radikon’s home, you can carry a plate of freshly cooked polenta to Edi Kante and Jasko Gravner, two other world-renowned winemakers, and still eat it piping hot.
First, Stanko believes that the 750 ml size does not really provide the right amount of wine for 2 people to share at dinner – an argument not easily rebutted. Therefore, he wanted to bottle all of his wines in liters and half-liters (because 2 people could then have a half liter of white and a half liter of red).
Following from this, in studies that he and Kante conducted with a cork manufacturer, they have devised what they think is the proper size of cork for these two bottle measures that gives the optimal surface-to-air permeability ratio for aging their wines. It is a narrower, smaller cork than the classic model. In deference to this cork, Stanko himself created a prototype bottle from silicon for the new liters and half-liters, and then had them manufactured at a local bottle factory. They are graceful, elegantly-necked bottles that were designed to fit in to most spaces where a 750ml bottle would. http://www.louisdressner.com/radikon/