WTN: Four Friulian Varietals..(short/boring)

Tried these four Friulian varietals over the last few days:
1. ViticoltoriFriulani Bastianich Friulano DOC: ColliOrientali del Friuli (13%) 2008: Med.light gold
color; fairly fragrant/floral/carnations/perfumed talc slight earthy/herbal/cabbagey pleasant nose;
bit soft light floral/perfumed talc/carnations light earthy bit dilute simple flavor; soft
perfumed talc/floral/carnations some cabbagey/earthy finish; a pleasant/simple little quaff but
just that. $18.00
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2. Massican annia (47% TocaiFriulano/33% RibollaGialla/20% Chard; 12.1%; www.Massican.com) 2010: Light
gold color; much more perfumed/fragrant very floral/grapefruity light minerally/stoney/steely very
attractive nose; tart steely/grapefruity/citric/tangy rather stoney/mineral light floral/perfumed talc
very attractivy/zippy/bright flavor; very long grapefruity/citric/appley light earthy/stoney/steely
tart/tangy/bright finish; the kind of bright white where one glass demands another; an attractive
bright/refreshing wine. $26.00
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3. Venica Ronco del Cero DOC: Collio Sauvignon (13.5%; 18 hrs skin contact @ 42 F; "serve at 50 F")
Venica & Vinica di Gianni e Giorgio Venica/Dolegna 2009: Med.gold color; very strong zippy/grapefruity/
citric/lemony slight earthy/mineral/chalky light herbal/SB bright fairly lush nose; fairly rich tangy/
tart/acid strong grapefruity/citric rather mineral/chalky light herbal/SB bright/zippy flavor; med.long
grapefruity/tangy/lemony light mineral/chalky/earthy some herbal/SB finish; quite a lovely SauvBlanc w/o
the herbal character of Calif SB and the gooseberry/cat pee of NZ SB. $22.00
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4. VivacWnry Refosco MimbresVlly/NewMexico (85% Refosco/5% Merlot/5% Dolcetto/5% Cabernet; 106 cs;
www.VivacWinery.com) Jesse & Chris Padberg/Dixon/NM 2007: Very dark color w/ slight browning; some herbal/
sagebrush/chamisa/Deming terroir strong black cherry/black cherry cola/RC cola slight pungent/tarry some
smoky/charred/oak bit rustic/earthy quite interesting nose; soft slight herbal/chamisa/sagebrush/earthy
fairly strong black cherry/cherry cola/RC cola light charred/pungent/oak slight tarry/licorice somewhat
rough/rustic flavor; fairly long soft black cherry/cola/root beer slight sagebrush/chamisa/weedy slight
tannic/rustic finish; speaks of both the Deming terroir and Refosco; on the palate, it has the texture that
suggests a high pH wine; one of the better/more interesting NM reds. $22.00
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And a wee BloodyPulpit:
1. I got interested in Friulian wines back in the '70's at the urging of DarrellCorti. Particularly
TokaiFriuliano (now just Friuliano...thanks Hungary) and RibollaGialla and SauvBlanc for the whites
and Schiopettino and Refosco for the reds. I try as many as I kind find that come down the pike.
An under-appreciated area of Italy. And right across the (very porous) border is Slovenia, where some
truly superb wines are also being made, now that the shackles of Tito's Communism have been discarded.
It turns out that there is gentle swell (hardly what you'd call a tsunami) of interest in these varieties
in Calif. The ringleader of this movement (if you'd call it that) is GeorgeVare
(http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... 1FB88H.DTL), who's so passionate about Ribolla
that he shares the small crop from his tiny vnyd with a number of other vintners who share his interest.
These include PaxMahle/WindGap, Duncan&Nathan/Arnot-Roberts, DanPetroski/Massican (www.Massican.com),
Enrico&Letezia/ArbeGarbe (www.ArbeGarbeWines.com), and Steve&Jill Matthiasson (www.Matthiasson.com). There's
probably some other ones lurking out there as well, I suspect. It's a pretty ragtag bunch w/ no real
organization, but they all seem pretty passionate about what they're doing. Mostly the emphasis seems to be
on the white varieties.
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2. Ribolla/Tokai: These are rather interesting varieties to me. I'm not real sure that I have a good handle on
the varietal character of the two. There used to be a lot of SauvignonVert planted in NorthernCalif where
it made a lot of lowly-regarded fairly neutral wines. Don't think I've knowingly had an varietal SauvVerts.
The grape was subsequently shown to be one in the same as TokaiFriuliano; so there is suddenly a lot of interest
in some of these old vnyds. I suspect we're going to be seeing a lot of Calif TokaiFriulano (where it's still
legal to use the Tokai name...at least for now...until the friggin' Hungarians catch wind of it). Dan's Tokai
comes from an old Nichlini vnyd up in ChilesVlly. Right in front of the home on Larkmead vnyd is a beautiful
old block of Tokai. The grapes once went to StonyHill, but are now made by Dan at LarkmeadWnry.
Can Ribolla/Tokai make great wines and overthrow the Chardonnay paradigm in Calif?? Well...probably not.
But I think they have enough varietal character that they can make some very interesting wines. Who knows...
maybe great?
One of the attractions of Friulian whites is they go so well w/ much of the Friulian cusine. Another
attraction is that they're relatively inexpensive (w/ exceptions mentioned below). You can get some very
pretty/delicious Friulian whites, but serious wines, in the low/mid-$20's. The NapaVlly is a pretty high-rent
district. I think one of the challenges will be to make these wines at a price-point that they won't price
themselves out of this limited niche-market. People will only pay so much for unique wines...as the vonStrasser
Gruner has shown.
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3. Refosco: Correctly known as Refosco dal Peduncolo Rosso, Refosco w/ the red pedical, or Refosk in Slovenia.
I've probably had some three dozen examples by now. Very interesting red. It has a strong black cherry/black
cherry cough syrup/cola slightly tarry/earthy character that can be quite lovely. And sometimes a bit rustic
at times. The kind of grape Dolcetto would be if it could. It (and Schiopettino) should be pursued more in
Calif, where I'm convinced they can make the world's greatest Refoschi.
For many years, people were convinced that Friuli's Refosco was the same grape as Savoie's Mondeuse and it
was distributed by Davis folks as such. But later DNA typing indicated that the two grapes have no relationship.
When PieroAntinori annd DickPeterson planted AtlasPeak way back then, they put in a small block of "Refosco".
Darrell made a few vintages of Refosco/Mondeuse back in the early '90's from those grapes. Since it is now
known to be Mondeuse, that block was pulled after the '09 vintage. So sad. The Matthiasson's have probably
now the only authentic planting of Refosco in Calif at their small estate vnyd. Both TobinJames and
BonnyDoon make a Refosco, but their authenticity is open to question.
Down in Deming, NM, Paola d'Andrea has a small planting of Refosco that goes to VivacWnry in Dixon. This is
a quite hot growing area and not an ideal place for growing great wines. Many of the reds from his vnyd often
have a slightly herbal hint that resembles sagebrush and chamisa. I got hints of that in this '07 Vivac, at a
low enough level to make the wine interesting. Wonder of chamisa/sagebrush put out an oil into the air like
eucalyptus? If Paola got his cuttings from Calif (which I suspect he did some 10-15 yrs ago), rather than import
them himself...he probably has Mondeuse down there.
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4. Frasca: Most of the above mentioned folks fell in love w/ Friulian varieties with a trip to Friuli and enjoying
the wines with their cusine. It's magical, so people tell me. Any mention of Friulian wines/cusine would be
remiss w/o a mention of BobbyStuckey & Lachlan MacKinnon-Patterson's Frasca restaurant in Boulder. Truly one of
the great Italian restaurants in the USofA, with an incredible wine list. And their Berkel is a thing of beauty.
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5. OrangeWines: No discussion of Friulian whites would be complete w/o a discussion of the orange wine movement.
These are white wines made like reds; skin contact and lees contact, sometimes quite lengthy; sometimes slightly
oxidized. This movement seems to have come from Friulia/Slovenia and led by Radikon/Gravner/Simcic/Movia and a
few others.There appears to be a growing interest in this genre from Calif winemakers as well; probably partially
fueled by the high $$'s some of thos winemakers get for their wines. There also seems to be more appearing from
Georgia, where this traditional winemaking technique has ancient roots.
Is orange wine the wave of the future?? I have my doubts. But certainly these wines have their fans. I think
there's definitely a niche market out there for them. I find some of them to just be plain weird. Are people
willing to pay $100 for an orange wine. Apparently they are. They're not a wine that appeals to everyone.
Several yrs ago, Susan & I had dinner at Perbacco. Nearby was a table of obvious wine geeks. They ordered the
Gravner from the wine list and it was duly decanted at table and poured around. To a person, they wrinkled up
their nose after the first sniff and hardly any of them took more than a first sip. I had the Somm take them
a big glass of my Marzeminno and they reciprocated w/ a generous glass of the abandoned Gravner. It was rather
oxidized and weird; but it had some amazing stuff going on in it and great complexity. As they say, you gotta
think outside the box when you have orange wines. And serve them at a not-too-cold temperature so they tannins
are not so fierce.
Tom

Tom, just as a reference point, David Noyes (formerly at Kunde, and before that at Ridge) makes a small amount each year under his own label of Tocai Friulano (no one has as yet prevented him from bottling under that name, afaik, so he continues), primarily from the old Pagani Ranch Vines in the Sonoma Valley. He prefers naming it Friulano rahter than Sauvignon Vert because, to him, it is more characteristic of Friuli-style than Chilean-style SV.

And it's pretty damned good. I always stocked several bottles when I lived in Sonoma because I like it, and it was interesting to pull a bottle to impress winegeeks that came wandering through. Tended to have more character and body...and significantly more acidity...than most of its CA ilk.

Don't hesitate to try it if you see a bottle (yeah, like you've ever hesitated to try any wine. )

Tom, just as a reference point, David Noyes (formerly at Kunde, and before that at Ridge) makes a small amount each year under his own label of Tocai Friulano (no one has as yet prevented him from bottling under that name, afaik, so he continues), primarily from the old Pagani Ranch Vines in the Sonoma Valley. He prefers naming it Friulano rahter than Sauvignon Vert because, to him, it is more characteristic of Friuli-style than Chilean-style SV.
And it's pretty damned good. I always stocked several bottles when I lived in Sonoma because I like it, and it was interesting to pull a bottle to impress winegeeks that came wandering through. Tended to have more character and body...and significantly more acidity...than most of its CA ilk.
Don't hesitate to try it if you see a bottle (yeah, like you've ever hesitated to try any wine. )

Thanks, Hoke. Just ordered some.
TocaiFriuliano is the recognized name by the Feds as an alternative to SauvVert. Until there's enough of them
to capture the attention of the Hungarians (who are a crude & brutal lot....they fence Sabre...fur gawd's sake) and they pressure the Feds,
it'll probably remain as such.
Tom

Hi Tom -

Thanks for the notes. I haven't had any of the exact wines that you mention, but have had quite a few interesting Friulanos, Refoscos, and Ribolla Giallas.

As for Gravner, my only complaint is that the prices are so high. Usually over $100 over here, and there are a lot of exciting orange wines that cost far less. The one Gravner that I did find on sale a couple of years ago was excellent, however.

Hi Tom -

As for Gravner, my only complaint is that the prices are so high. Usually over $100 over here, and there are a lot of exciting orange wines that cost far less. The one Gravner that I did find on sale a couple of years ago was excellent, however.

Yup, Andrew...my complaint as well. I've had 5-6 Gravner's now and liked all of them...very interesting wines that don't appeal to everyone, though.
I don't try them oftner because of the price.
Tom