WTN: 3 x Terpin - "Natural" Wine from Collio

In December I got try Terpin's Friulano which I liked very much, so I was very happy for this opportunity to try three more from this producer.

We opened the most conventional wine first, the Az. Ag. Franco Terpin Collio Stamas Rosso 2004 - 80% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Sauvignon; 14% abv; 20yo vines; 1 year in French oak, 1 year in steel & 1 year in bottle before release; c.14€; ugly label

I wish Bordeaux were more often like this. A lovely aroma of dark fruit, loam and baked beans, it seems a bit like the '88, '90 (yes, yes, I know no one else likes this vintage), '96 and '00 of Pichon Lalande. Good, ripe fruit, but lovely, high acidity and firm tannins, refreshing finish. Quite a delightful wine - I get what I so love in Pichon Lalande but for a tenth of the price. Awesome wine!

But this was conventional and follows a paradigm that every wine drinker is comfortable with. But then we had two "orange" wines, one easy to like, one pushing the boundaries of even this unconventional paradigm.

Az. Ag. Franco Terpin Collio Ribolla Gialla 2004 - 13% abv; c.14€; terrible label

This is a really wonderful "orange" wine! It smells earthy and is perhaps a touch oxidative. It also has vivid aromatics of sweet yet vibrantly acidic fruits like oranges and apricots - in short, it reminds me of white Musar. A deep palate with layer upon layer of flavour and complexity: crisp acidity, fairly strong tannins even by "orange wine" standards, but wonderfully refreshing fruit. The sensation is very much like biting into a ripe apricot with wonderfully sweet fruit but it is invigorating rather than cloying in its sweetness. Persistent finish. Wonderful wine!

Az. Ag. Franco Terpin Sauvignon Blanc delle Venezie IGT 2006 - 14% abv; I really think he should get someone to redesign his labels

I don't have much information on this wine, but IIRC, this is raised like the other Terpins: one year in wood, one in steel and one in bottle before release. Deep orange. It is oxidative and smells of apricot marmalade and dust, but it does also have a herbaceous lift that does remind me - albeit slightly - of the grape. Quite the most ferociously tannic white I have ever had - drink with red meat! Full bodied but also strongly acidic so the result is very light on its feet. The high alcohol is well hidden. This follows a different paradigm so enjoyment requires an open mind - but by the second glass I found much to like.

Interesting post from you, Otto...as always! Two Ribolla Gialla`s from Movia last year were both corked. This one sounds a lot more fun.
How is the job hunting going along?

At least you had the quotes around "natural", Otto.

As a marketing term, and not through its original meaning, I mean. I'd say these wine are hardly natural.

Mind you, I quite like what's happening in Friuli/Slovenia these days, and I am a fan of the orange wines in general (though not always in the specific). But natural, they aren't.

The Terpin certainly sounds intriguing. I'd like to try them someday. Never seen them around here.

And you are correct: those labels are pretty bad.

Labels aren’t that bad, they have an “hourglass” symmetry thing going for them.

Salute

Bob, sorry to hear that, Movia can be great. Job hunting gladly unnecessary for this month at least as I'm doing fairly regular hours at a new bookshop.

Hoke, I'm not sure I like the term "natural wine" at all - what wine would be "natural"? We can't eliminate the human. So do you have a better name for the products of this aesthetic movement? Real Wine?

Bob, sorry to hear that, Movia can be great. Job hunting gladly unnecessary for this month at least as I'm doing fairly regular hours at a new bookshop.

Hoke, I'm not sure I like the term "natural wine" at all - what wine would be "natural"? We can't eliminate the human. So do you have a better name for the products of this aesthetic movement? Real Wine?

Otto, I've categorically rejected "natural", "pure", and "real" wine. None of those describe or corral the types of wine implied. And all are so freighted, so inutterably reeking with marketing speak as to be repugnant (and isn't it ironic that those same people who most sneer at others affected by effective marketin resort to...marketing...in instances like these?).

Orange wine, of course, is more apt, but also much more limiting to a subset.

We can't use "Pre-Technical", because they aren't, usually. Such overt manipulation, much of it with the clear benefit of technology, would preclude that designation. And it most certainly is not "non-interventional". I suppose a case could be mounted for "non-preservative" or "preservative free", certainly in the sans souffre wines, but don't know if that encompasses the genre satisfactorily.

So I guess I'm at a loss right now to come up with a handy term for these. Outside of "wine geeks' darlings", I mean.