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Aron Weinkauf, winemaker of Spottswoode Estate Vineyard & Winery

Aitor Trabado

30 March, 2017

Aron Weinkauf, winemaker of Spottswoode Estate Vineyard & Winery

Originally published in miamigoelvino.com 30/03/2017.

Recently we run a feature about Napa Valley’s Spottswoode Estate Vineyard & Winery. A family-run winery located in St. Helena, California. We had pending a conversation with its winemaker Aron Weinkauf.

Good morning Aron, and thank you for your cooperation. You are the chief winemaker of the house since 2011. What’s so special about the Spottswoode’s vineyards to produce such splendid grapes?

It’s an exceptional vineyard at the confluence of a seasonal creek, which has left dynamic, diverse soil at the start of the bench with good drainage.

What kind of weather and soil do you have here?

We are in one of the warmer sites of the Napa Valley, so our trellis, canopy management, organic farming for over 50 years, and other winegrowing decisions are very important to our winery and wine style.

Estate Cabernet Sauvignon and Lyndenhurst Cabernet Sauvignon are your trademark wines. How do you manage to express both the terroir and the grape into them?

If one doesn’t allow the grapes to overripen, I think the grapes express themselves.

The Estate Cabernet Sauvignon is an iconic wine. How do you elaborate it? How do you select the grapes for it? How this variety shows its characteristics and personality in your wines?

We farm for a vineyard that is balanced and dynamic, in which we want each block to express itself. We select grapes for a wine of great balance and density and then try not to over extract, over oxidize, or over oak the Cabernet Sauvignon, so that the fruit shows powerfully, fresh, and expressive.

What’s your style of wine and how do you make your Cabernets to show it?

Balanced, not overripe, layered, a wine that will evolve, structured, aromatic and textured.

Then you produce a white wine: the Spottswoode Sauvignon Blanc, a young wine with no aging.

Yes, this is correct. This said, it is equal in production to our Cabernet Sauvignon, and within the world of Sauvignon Blanc, we consider it also iconic.

Please tell us about the Field Book wines.

These are wines we love and want to explore, grown by growers with passion in areas where we are trying something new and unique.

Being Spaniard as I am, it caught my attention that you elaborate a wine with the Spanish Albariño variety. How is this wine and how the grape adapts here?

We think the wine is great. Grown near Forestville, California, due to the moderate temperatures, cool nights, and growing practices, the wine has preserved acidity, texture, and vibrant Albariño aromatics. We use very little oak.

Do you plan on keep on producing it?

Yes, we plan to continue producing it. It is a very young vineyard that we are helping to develop and advising on its farming.

Have you tasted Albariño from Rías Baixas? How do both wines compare?

I also lived in Spain and loved/love wines from the Rías Baixas! We do a number of comparative tastings here at Spottswoode, and find that we do very well with the variety.

Do you plan to use other non-common varieties in the USA?

When the other components of grower, unique projects, and varietal coincide, we will certainly consider it.

Some years ago, before your time here, the vineyards suffered the attack of the Phylloxera. How did they manage to avoid losing the vineyard?

They avoided this by gradual replanting to and with modern rootstock.

Nowadays Spottswoode is an organic and biodynamic farm. Can you explain how do you work in this way?

Biodynamics helps advise the wisdom and rhythms by which we work. Organics is the way we’ve been farming since 1985. The rules guide the products that we use, and structure our goals of farming for the health of our land, homes, and community. And of course, both contribute to the energy and strength of the wine.

What’s your winemaking philosophy?

Wines are made in the vineyard. All qualitative decisions start there, and then we make the wine as respectful to the natural process as possible. It is important to me to allow the wines to show true to the time and place at which they were grown.

What kind of wines do you like to drink when you are not working?

I am interested in all kind of wines, especially Barolo, Sancerre, Spain, and archetypical wines

Thank you very much, Aron!!

Aron Photos © by Robb McDonough (Spottswoode Estate Vineyard & Winery)

Spottswoode Estate Vineyard & Winery

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Tenuta Di Angoris, the centennial Friuli winery

Aitor Trabado

20 March, 2017

Tenuta Di Angoris, the centennial Friuli winery

Originally published in miamigoelvino.com 20/03/2017.

I find a great pleasure in pairing food and wine. Well, I always find pleasure in wine and also in food, so putting them together is just the icing on the cake. Last year I was able to have a dinner like this in which food matched wine and wine matched food. I don’t remember the food, sorry, but I know this: the wines were very good. And those I remember well. Ok, I remember they were good, but luckily for me, Iñigo, a friend of mine, has an app for helping my memory store the wines I keep and those that I enjoy. So I checked the app and found the wines we enjoyed last year.

The occasion was an American Football camp in Trieste, Italy. One Saturday night they took us one hour away from Trieste for dining in a restaurant owned by a winery, Tenuta Di Angoris, located in Cormons, in the Northeastern corner of Italy. The meal was great and it matched a Villa Locatelli Friulano 2014 (DOC Isonzo del Friuli), Angoris Chardonnay 2013 (DOC Friuli Colli Orientali), Angoris Refosco Dal Peduncolo Rosso 2012 (DOC Friuli Colli Orientali), Modolet Bianco Brut, a sparkling wine, and Angoris Picolit 2010 (DOC Colli Orientali del Friuli), a sweet wine. The dinner ended in the best possible way, with a private visit to the winery with Alessandro Dal Zovo, Angoris winemaker. Since then I have enjoyed a few bottles of this winery, including a superb Angoris Schioppettino 2013.

So this winery has been in the back of my mind ever since so I decided to write a bit about them.

What are the main characteristics of Tenuta Di Angoris? They have a lot, of course, but I will tell you about two of them: Angoris was founded by Locatello Locatelli in the year 1648. Yes, 1648. 368 years ago. That’s a lot. Locatelli was an officer in Emperor of Austria Ferdinand III’s army and after the Thirty-year war he was awarded with the lands where the winery is located. So we are facing a estate producing wine for a long time now.

The second aspect I find really interesting is that Tenuta Di Angoris is the only winery that owns land and produces wine in the three different DOCs in Friuli: DOC Isonzo, DOC Collio and DOC Colli Orientali del Friuli. 130 hectares of vineyards producing 800.000 bottles a year

Angoris has two different lines of wines and both of them offer single-varietal wines: Villa Locatelli comes after the name of the family currently owning the Tenuta and they offer nine wines: Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Bianco and Pinot Grigio are the international varietals and Refosco Dal Peduncolo Rosso and Friulano are the local varietals. Villa Locatelli is the entry line, the one with wines easier to drink

The second line of production is Angoris. Here they offer 15 wines: Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio, Traminer, Sauvignon Blanc and Merlot are the international varietals and Friulano, Picolit, Refosco Dal Peduncolo Rosso, Ribolla Gialla, Schioppettino, Spiule, Collio, Ravòst and Pignolo are the local varietals. This line has more medium to full-bodied wines with more structure and tannins.

Angoris also elaborates a Verduzzo-Friulano, a sweet wine and also five sparkling wines: Modolet Bianco, Modolet Giallo, Modolet Rosé, 1648 White and 1648 Rosé.

Alessandro Dal Zovo is their winemaker and we will have time to talk to him about their wines produced in these three important DOCs in Friuli.

Fotos © Tenuta Di Angoris

Tenuta Di Angoris

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Mario Zanusso, tradition making white wines in Friuli

Aitor Trabado

16 March, 2017

Mario Zanusso, tradition making white wines in Friuli

Recently we spoke about I Clivi, a Friuli winery located in Corno di Rosazzo (Udine), that produces three wines using Friulano, two more using Ribolla Gialla, a Malvasia Istriana, a Verduzzo and a Merlot. Mario Zanusso is the winemaker and he has a passion for producing wines pointing more to the varietal characteristics of the grape and freshness rather than to the more distinctive soil characteristics and maturity.

Buongiorno, Mario, and thank you for your cooperation. Where does your passion for wine come from?

It comes from my father, who taught me to respect the wines and their makers many years before we even started thinking about becoming producers ourselves.

With your white wines, you only work with the Fiore, the first part of the freerun most.

Yes, the Fiore is the purest part of the must, the cleanest and most stable, requiring no stabilizing agent to be added afterwards.

You don’t use oak but do all the processes in steel. Why do you favor the steel?

Steel helps us to keep a lighter weight to the wines, and to keep the integrity of the raw material – the grapes – with no interference from the container.

You moved from field blends to single-varietal wines. What made you take this step?

We matured a different vision about indigenous varieties such as Friulano, Verduzzo and Malvasia (the Ribolla is a more recent implant). At the beginning we were blending Friulano with Verduzzo in the Colli Orientali vineyard, and Friulano with Malvasia in the Collio site; although, over the years we started thinking that both Malvasia and Verduzzo – even playing the minor part in their respective blend with Friulano – marked a bit too much the Friulano, which is aromatically more neutral. So we begun separating the varieties and released a new label: Rosaspina, which focuses on the primary characters of the different grapes, trying to give our best, philological reading of the variety and leaving the aim of a more terroir-driven expression to our Crus label, which is sold after a longer maturation.

You produce a Friulano wine from each vineyard. What’s the difference between them?

The difference is in the terroir: grape variety, age of the vines, tending technique and winemaking are all the same; what changes is the soil (higher ratio of limestone in the Collio site, Brazan; higher clay quota in the Colli Orientali vineyard, Galea), and the microclimate (more diurnal variations and humidity in Brazan, longer sun exposure of the vines and drier soil in Galea), leading to two very different outcomes.

Tell us about your Ribolla Gialla, please.

Ribolla Gialla is our favorite variety: it’s modern and avant-garde, yet traditional and historically deeply rooted. There are records of Ribolla being produced in the Colli Orientali back in the XII Century. It’s perfectly acclimatized: even in warmest season she keeps a great acidity and low ph, with a moderate sugar content (hence low alcohol). It’s aromatically subtle, extremely elegant provided you burn all the sugars, and on our flysch soil leads to a very pleasant mineral and clean aftertaste. You have here a picture of my ideal grape.

You also produce a spumante with the Ribolla.

Yes we do. The organoleptic profile of Ribolla is ideal for a sparkling wine (low sugars, low ph, high acidity, moderate aromas), the CO2 just highlighting the subtle perfumes and matching perfectly the sapid finish. We opted for a sparkling with single-fermentation, meaning the bubbles are produced by the primary, alcoholic fermentation and not by an induced secondary re-fermentation. There’s no addition of sugars nor yeasts, there’s no need for. We believe this method is the most suitable for Ribolla, since it does not add any yeasty flavors nor vinous density to a wine which is all about finesse, white flowers and lemon zest.

You don’t like to macerate your wines in contact with the skins.

We are producers of white wines: a prolonged contact with the skins brings Orange wines, which are a whole different world, expressing a different aesthetics and above all a totally different culture, primarily Slovenian (with all its belongings: cuisine, vision, history, etc). Personally I sense that skins do release rustic flavours which hardly match the aromas of the pulp, interfering with that “crispness” we aim to.

And you produce a Malvasia Istriana coming from 80-year-old vines.

Those are the oldest vines we have, and they do a marvellous job in bringing all different elements into perfect balance. I would sum up the main quality of these vines into a single word: balance. Nothing you can reproduce in the cellar. The wine coming from these old vines is the apex of elegance, delicacy and finesse.

Aren’t you tempted to pass this Malvasia through oak?

No, we are not. Oak would add up to an already dense and intense natural aroma of the variety, which could become overwhelming and wearisome.

We love Merlot wines and the ones coming from Friuli are very special. What this area has for making these good Merlots?

It’s the clay soil, and the climate.

What’s the wine you are more proud of?

Malvasia: I consider it almost a classic by now, meaning it defines an own classicism.

What kind of wine do you like to drink when you are not working?

Chenin Blancs from the Loire, Jura Savagnins and Mosel Rieslings.

Grazie mille, Mario!!

Thank you!

Photos © I Clivi

La Castellada, the Merlot in Collio

Aitor Trabado

9 March, 2017

Before dining in Lokanda Devetak a few months ago, we had visited the amazing underground cellar Augustin has. We were looking for a bottle to take home with us and he recommended us Rosso della Castellada 2003, a Merlot/Cabernet blend by a local winery. So local is just a few kilometers away from the restaurant. We followed his advice.

Days later we visited Primosic, another local winery producing a great Orange wine using Ribolla Gialla. Azienda Agricola Primosic is member of an association called Associazione Produttori Ribolla Di Oslavia, formed by Italian producers elaborating wines with the Ribolla Gialla variety, which they call the Yellow Soul of Oslavia. Six producers created the association: Silvan Primosic, Dario Prinčič, Stanko Radikon, Rinaldo Fiegl, Franco Sosol (Il Carpino) and the producer of the wine we took home with us, Nicolò Bensa (La Castellada).

La Castellada was founded in 1954 in Oslavia, (Gorizia) by Giuseppe Bensa, when he returned from Switzerland where he had been working as a carpenter. He purchased some plots of land that included a house to use as a tavern where he could serve the wines he produced. In 1985, sons Giorgio and Nicolò started bottling the wine that they were already selling and dedicated heart and soul to wine growing and establishing La Castellada estate. The name comes from one of the Oslavia hills. In 2009 Nicolò’s sons Matteo and Stefano joined the company.

Nowadays La Castellada owns 10 hectares of vineyards, with half of those being 45/55 years old and yielding around 3,000/3,500 plants per hectare with a production of 50 tons/ha, while the other more recent half is about 25 years old and has 5,500/6,000 plants per hectare with a lower yield of 50 tons/ha, achieving optimal ripening and concentration. Soils are marl and sandstone flysch (ponca) of Eocene origin.

The Oslavia area is placed between the Julian Alps and the Adriatic Sea, where the action of a cool and breezy air favors the creation of a microclimate.

As residents of Oslavia and members of the aforementioned association, the RibollaGialla is our place to start. The Bensas like to work with big Slavonian casks and they use steel tanks to refine the final product. In the case of their Orange wine, they leave the must macerating with the skins and also their natural yeasts for two months. Yes, sixty days of maceration. Then the wine stays 24 months ageing in oak. The color, well, this style is called Orange wine and not because they use this fruit. As for the aromas and taste, is it a wine you either love or dislike because it is not for everyone, but if you like it, you absolutely love it, as it is our case.

You might think that they only do this with the Ribolla, but no, my friend. They have another wine, Bianco Riserva VRH (75% Chardonnay, 25% Sauvignon Blanc) produced under the same method as the Ribolla: two months macerating and 24 months more ageing in Slavonian casks.

Four other white wines macerate with their skins, but in this case for only four days. The Chardonnay, the Sauvignon and the Friulano, as well as their white blend, the Bianco della Castellada (50% Pinot Grigio, 30% Chardonnay, 20% Sauvignon Blanc).

Finally their Pinot Grigio stays a total of 15 days macerating in the big casks.

La Castellada not only produces white wines. We talked in the beginning about the Rosso della Castellada, a blend with 85% Merlot and 15% Cabernet. After fermentation, this wine spends 12 months in oak barrels and then is transferred into Slavonian casks for another 24 months.

Their last red wine is a single-varietal Merlot. What does it have so special? The destemmed grapes were macerated for 15 days in Slavonian oak with their indigenous yeasts. The ageing was 12 months in barrels and 24 months in big Slavonian oak casks with a refining period in stainless steel vats without filtration.

All their wines are Collio DOC.

Do you think there are no special wines around here? You should try these ones produced by La Castellada.

Soon we will talk to Stefano Bensa about their winemaking philosophy.

Photos © La Castellada

La Castellada

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Nadia Zenato, Sansonina and Zenato winemaker in Lugana and Valpolicella

Aitor Trabado

6 March, 2017

Nadia Zenato, Sansonina and Zenato winemaker in Lugana and Valpolicella

Originally published in miamigoelvino.com 06/03/2017.

Recently we visited Zenato Winery, producers of great wines in Lugana and Valpolicella. We wanted to talk to the winery’s winemaker, Nadia Zenato, about their wines and also about her personal project Sansonina.

Buongiorno, Nadia, and thank you for your collaboration. First of all, we have to say we loved each of the wines we were fortunate to taste during our visit to Zenato.

Buongiorno, I am very glad that you enjoyed the visit and especially that you appreciated our wines. It was a real pleasure to have you here in our land and to introduce you to our story made of passion and tradition.

The vineyards in Garda are so close to the Alps and at the same time close to a big body of water such as the lake. How this translates into the wines?

Actually I have to admit that we are in a very lucky geographical position. Thanks to the influence of the Alps and the Garda Lake, we have a very mild climate that makes the viticulture particularly favorable.

You produce wines under two DOCs: Lugana and Valpolicella. What are the main differences between them?

Today Zenato counts 60 hectares of vineyards on the S. Cristina estate in SanBenedetto di Lugana, perfect for Trebbiano di Lugana, and 35 hectares on the Costalunga estate in Valpolicella, with the renowned Corvina, Rondinella and Oseleta vines. In 1960, my father saw the enormous potential of the native Trebbiano di Lugana vine and he decided to concentrate on this variety, at a time when no one believed in it, in order to bring out its untapped potential. So it was that Lugana became a great white wine, winning recognition as a DOC.

Then in 1990 my father invested in a new challenge: he bought a magnificent vineyard in Valpolicella, Costalunga estate, to make his own Amarone. From the pressing of the withered grapes of Amarone, over which Valpolicella wine is passed, comes the Ripassa, one of our most significant wines.

Today, together with my mother Carla and my brother Alberto, we extend the quality, the labels and the markets, disseminating the excellence of Zenato wines in more than 65 countries around the world with the same values and passion.

The Trebbiano di Lugana is a variety that surprised us a lot. How do you like to work with it?

I was born here in Lugana, where the Trebbiano di Lugana is the typical grape. My father passed down to me his art and passion to work this kind of grape and few years ago I started to vinificate it only with indigenous yeasts, creating our first Lugana Spontaneous Fermentation by Sansonina Winery.

With the Trebbiano you produce three dry wines: San Benedetto, S. Cristina and the Riserva Sergio Zenato. Then two sparkling wines (a Classic Method Brut and a Classic Method Pass Dosé), a Bianco Passito and a Grappa. How do you manage this versatility with this variety?

We use just a single variety in order to work with low yields, we select by hand the grapes in different moments of the harvest and we press them very gently to keep all the typical aromas. Then we work the grapes in a different way for each wine to give them a personal style, every wine has its own identity.

How are your two sparkling wines?

We consider our Lugana Brutand Lugana Pass Dosé as complementary wines. The decision to produce a sparkling wine from Trebbiano di Lugana grapes dates back to the foundation of the winery in 1960s. The creation of the classic method enhances the features of this grape itself liberating all its purity.

Our Lugana Pass Dosé, however, was born after a very particular harvest in 2007: tasting the wine, we realized that it was already complete without the addition of liqueur; the result was a wine that expressed even more our territory, only 3.000 bottles “alla vole” with a jasmine and lavender scent.

We discovered your personal project Sansonina. What moved you and your mother to start with this vineyard in 1997?

Sansonina is a project, a personal challenge to revive an ancient Merlot grape variety, launching the production of a red wine in the land of whites. The project began with a trial vinification of the grapes of the ancient vine and we found that the result was excellent. Sansonina’s purpose is to promote the Garda territory not only with white wines but also with the red ones. I try to do my best!

And why do you use Merlot, a variety which is not local?

Actually this variety was already present, there was an ancient vine and we started a series of analysis with some of the best agronomists, who told us that our area was similar to the Grand Crus in Bordeaux. So we decided to revive this ancient vine and to produce a red wine in a land of whites.

How’s the character of your Sansonina Merlot?

Sansonina Merlot is an elegant, determined wine with a strong personality. In Sansonina there is my whole being, it is a wine that represents me, with roots firmly planted in the territory, but with the drive to dare, to experiment.

And how do you elaborate the Sansonina Fermentazione Spontanea?

Our Lugana Fermentazione Spontanea is the first Lugana fermented with the indigenous yeasts naturally present on the grapes.

The project started in 2012 and, after three years of painstaking experimentation, with the 2014 vintage, we finally achieved our goal: we bottled the first cuvée of Lugana Vigna del Moraro Verde through a spontaneous fermentation technique.

The integrity of the grapes, coming from a 40-year-old vineyard, is extremely important for this kind of winemaking and slow fermentation with the indigenous yeasts of the grapes guarantees a unique bouquet of aromas and scents.

Back to Lugana wines, we find the Riserva Sergio Zenato 2014 incredibly balanced with the combined use of oak and steel.

The history of Lugana Riserva dates back to 1993 when my father discovered this technique just for fun and proposed the Lugana in a renewed style.

After a slightly late harvest in our Cru, the fermentation takes place at around 70% in oak casks and 30% in steel and the ageing follows for around 6 months in barrels and 12 months in the bottle. The result is a unique expression of this wine in structure and significant longevity.

Considering that you are making wine in Lugana, in Sansonina and also in Valpolicella, what’s your approach to each site for their wines? How do you transmit different characteristics to your wines? Is it a totally different approach from the traditional Amarone methods to the Lugana ones and then to a more personal project like Sansonina?

Zenato is for sure synonym of tradition; on the other hand Sansonina means innovation. Both in Zenato and in Sansonina we try always to outdo ourselves, to do our best enhancing and safeguarding territory, nature and sustainability. The preservation of the environment is one of the most important values for us and for this reason we use the least possible chemical treatments. Sansonina especially is moving towards organic certifications. Every wine has its own personality and story, but each one tells the passion with which we produce them.

What would be the main difference in ‘personality’ in Lugana and Valpolicella for you?

Lugana and Valpolicella are two very different territories. The soil in Lugana is full of clay, whereas in Valpolicella it is very rocky, cretaceous and almost red.

Lugana represents for me my childhood when I played among the vineyards and Valpolicella reminds me my first harvests and the careful selection of the grapes. Zenato is the soul of Lugana and the heart of Valpolicella.

Which is the wine you are most proud of? The one you see yourself better reflected?

The wine I am most proud of is our Amarone for its strong personality, its link with the territory and its method of production (appassimento and very long aging). It is a unique wine and I like to call it the king of our wines. The wine I see myself better reflected is Lugana Sansonina Spontaneous Fermentation, because it represents for me a challenge as winemaker. In this wine I can see my personality, my continuous desire to innovate and learn.

What kind of wine you drink when you are not working?

I love Burgundy wines.

Grazie mille, Nadia!!

Nadia Zenato Pictures © by Zenato

Zenato

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I Clivi, Friulano artisan winemakers

Aitor Trabado

2 March, 2017

A sign that says you are ageing well (like good wines) is when you stop salivating thinking of pizza and start salivating when reading about new wines. We are sure this happens to you as frequent as it happens to us. You start imagining how this wine must smell in your glass and taste in your mouth and you are simply taken away by your thoughts. You drift away thinking of that particular wine.

Recently we have discovered a new world of white wines. Jean Marcos used to be sure we didn’t like white wines (which is not true). We run away from those typical wines around that are high in acidity and they are, let’s say, rough and that’s the style of white wine we don’t like. We like smooth, rounded balanced wines. We love the French and German varietals. And we have discovered a place in this world where you can find white wines you instantly fall in love with. We have found Trebbiano di Lugana, Ribolla Gialla, Malvasia Istriana, Verduzzo, Friulano and now we cannot think of drinking any other stuff.

We were studying wines for this article produced by I Clivi, a winery located in Corno di Rosazzo (Udine), Italia, and our tasting buds were going crazy. They have three different wines produces with Friulano, the local variety previously known as Tocai Friulano that had to have its name changed because of naming rights disputes with the Hungarian Tokaj grape. I Clivi is run by Ferdinando Zanusso and his son Mario. They produce around 50,000 bottles a year with four white varieties (Malvasia Istriana, Ribolla, Verduzzo and Friulano) and a red wine elaborated with Merlot. The Merlot is their only wine passing through oak as the white wines do all their processes in steel tanks.

Ferdinando bought an estate in Brazzano di Cormons in the mid the mid-90s, a small old vineyard of two hectares named Brazan. Later he added another vineyard named Galea in Corno di Rosazzo that included a ruined house. And so started the history of I Clivi. The Brazan vineyard is Collio DOC, province of Gorizia, with Southwest exposure and Galea is Colli Orientali del Friuli DOC, with Southeast exposure. The soil in both of them is marl and sandstone flysch (ponca) of Eocene origin.

1996 was their first vintage and they produced only two white wines, each one coming from these two vineyards: in the vineyard of the Colli Orientali they blended the Friulano with the other varieties in smaller quantities (particularly the Verduzzo), while in the Collio vineyard Friulano was blended with Malvasia Istriana.

For more than 10 years they have produced only these two white wines: Galea (80% Friulano and 20% Verduzzo) and Brazan (80% Friulano, 20% Malvasia), wines that were field blends, representing the varietal composition of the respective vineyards. Later they began to separate the Friulano from other varieties, which now are single-variety wines.

Nowadays they produce Galea and Brazan, which are now made of 100% Friulano. A third label identification, named Rosaspina, is for wines coming from the varieties that were once assembled with the Friulano: Verduzzo, Malvasia and more recently Ribolla.

In 2008 the vineyards suffered a Mildew attack that left them able to produce only 3,000 bottles of that vintage. It served as a turning point as they began to vinify the grape varieties separately, avoiding excessive extraction and focusing on the recovery of lightness, of weightlessness as a value, not as a sign of poverty for wines.

Shortly after they added the Ribolla Gialla, first experimenting with it in microvinifications for personal use until the day they finally added their own vineyard of Ribolla, a variety they believe will probably be the future for this wine-growing area. The Zanusso produce the Ribolla with no maceration, something that calls for your attention as in the Friuli region many producers are elaborating wines with long periods of skin contact with the must.

Ferdinando and Mario work with the Fiore, the freerun must you get from the first pressing of the grapes, the one coming from their heart. They stop the extraction of the must when the skins and pulp have not yet been thoroughly pressed. The Fiore is the finest part of the must; it drains naturally from the grapes. The skins are then returned to the vineyard as natural compost, closing the circle. The Fiore leads to extremely fine wines.

The vinification process is conducted strictly without contact between the skins and the must (maceration), except for the Merlot they produce. The fermentation is done using only indigenous yeasts. The use of stainless steel tanks and neutral materials like glass allows them to keep the integrity of the grapes from interference and interactions with their container. They aim for simplicity, neutrality, a cellar work reduced to essentials.

As we mentioned, they produce one red wine with Merlot: Clivi Galea Rosso, with ten months in used oak barrels. They have three Friulano wines, one coming from Brazan vineyard, Clivi Brazan, and the second from the Galea vineyard, Clivi Galea. In the 2014 vintage they produced 3,000 bottles of each wine (2,000 for the Merlot). Both Clivi Brazan and Clivi Galea stay in contact with their lees for 18 months. The exposition of the vineyards is the only difference between these two wines, as all the processes are done exactly the same.

Friulano San Pietro comes from the same name vineyard. They produce around 15,000 bottles per vintage of this wine. The period it stays with its lees is 6-10 months. This wine points more to the varietal characteristics of the grape and freshness rather than to the more distinctive soil characteristics and maturity.

The Verduzzo comes from the same area than the previous wine and it also stays with its lees for 6 months. Its production is 4,000 bottles per year.

Malvasia Vigna 80 Anni is a wine produced with the Malvasia Istriana vineyard in Brazzano. They produce 3,000 bottles per vintage of this wine. The period it stays with its lees is 12 months.

They produce two wines with the Ribolla Gialla. The sparkling RBL Brut Nature is a wine that does not follow either the Champenoise or the Charmat Methods. The bubbles are made by retaining in the fermenting must the CO2 produced in the final stages of its fermentation. There is no secondary fermentation and therefore no addition of sugar and yeasts, which also ultimately means no addition of alcohol. They press the Ribolla grapes and place the resulting must in an open vat where it ferments as usual, releasing the CO2 into the air. Towards the end of the fermentation, when the residual sugar is around 25 grams per liter – just what it takes to produce the bubbles at a pressure of 5 or 6 bars – the vat is closed so that the CO2 released by the fermentation of the remaining sugar is retained in the resulting wine to form the bubbles. The wine is then left in the same vat to mature on its lees and subsequently bottled under pressure. 5,000 bottles per year.

Finally, Ribolla Gialla. 15,000 of this fantastic wine. The hand-picked grapes are pressed very gently to extract only the first and cleanest part of the must (mosto fiore), which is immediately pumped in a stainless steel vat. In the morning after the upper part of the must is separated from the bottom (feccia grossa – hard lees) and racked in to another stainless steel tank, where the natural grapes’ own yeasts start the fermentation of the sugars. At the end of this process, the wine stays on its own ferment

I Clivi

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ation deposits (feccia fine – lees), which are kept floating in order to avoid reductive (asphyxia) effects and to gain the stabilization and anti-oxidative benefits that these natural components bring. This is called maturation on lees. The length of this maturation varies from wine to wine; this Ribolla Gialla matures 6 months on its own lees, always remaining in stainless steel vats. After this time, the wine is bottled with a light filtration, meant only to eliminate the cloudiness brought by the floating lees.

Soon we will talk to Mario about their philosophy and their wines.

Photos © I Clivi

Casanova di Neri, the best Brunello di Montalcino of 2010

Aitor Trabado

27 February, 2017

Casanova di Neri, the best Brunello di Montalcino of 2010

Originally published in miamigoelvino.com 27/02/2017.

Our first contact with Italian wines was, presumably, with a Chianti wine. In the memory lane there is a wine called Leonardo, one of those coming in a straw basket that you can find in Italian restaurants everywhere. But the first serious Italian wine we enjoyed was a Brunello di Montalcino. It sounds like a beast for starting discovering wines from this country, but hey! You go to Tuscany on holidays and that’s what you get!

Our holiday quarters were based in the lovely small town of Montalcino. We were driving around but we always came back at dusk to this town. We had done our homework about wines, visited the local wine shops that in Montalcino are everywhere, and asked our hotel manager for his favorite Brunello wines. A funny story about Brunello wines comes to mind: In a grocery shop in Rome they had behind the counter a wall full of wines, with a great selection of Brunello. We were paying close attention to them over the shoulder of the manager for making our selection. Then we pointed to one of them and he took a look like “what is this tourist pointing at?” When he saw our selection, he turned to us with his mouth open and he said: “Oh!, bravo, bravo!” with a smile in his face. He liked our choice a lot.

So back to Montalcino, one of the local wines stood up among the rest. It was recommended to us, and we had read that the American magazine Wine Spectator had selected it as the best wine of the year. So it had to be something. And off we went chasing it.

Azienda Agricola Casanova di Neri is a family–run winery located in the outskirts of Montalcino. It was founded in 1971 by Giovanni Neri, who acquired 12 hectares that have grown to the current 63. Fifteen years after its birth, they started earning international trophies, such as the Grand Prix and Gold Medal in Bordeaux in 1986 and the aforementioned Wine of the Year trophy in 2006.

Nowadays the 63 hectares of vineyards are subdivided into 5 plots: Pietradonice on the Southeastern side of Montalcino, Le Cetine on the Southern side, Cerretalto on the Eastern side, Fiesole located near the new cellar and the homonymous farmhouse opposite to the town of Montalcino and Podernuovo on the highest position of the estate at 450 above sea level.

They produce three Brunello wines with different characteristics. The Brunello Di Montalcino spends around 45 months in Slavonian oak barrels and then six more in the bottle. The 2008 is marked as the 30th vintage of this wine. The Brunello Di Montalcino Tenuta Nuova spends between 27 and 36 months in oak, depending on the year, and at least one more year in the bottle. Finally, the Brunello Di Montalcino Cerretalto ages in small oak barrels a little longer than 2 years and at least 24 months in the bottle.

They also produce the IB Bianco, produced with Vermentino 50% and Grechetto 50% and the IR Rosso, produced with Sangiovese and Colorino. These two wines are aged in oak barrels for around 42 months and 6 months in bottle. The Sangiovese Rosso di Montalcino is aged in oak barrels for around 15 months and the Pietradonice is a Cabernet Sauvignon aged in oak barrels for around 19 months and 6 months in bottle.

The fermentation of the wines is usually done without use of yeast additives and the maceration takes place in open conical vats at controlled temperatures for 2 to 3 weeks.

And you know what? We still have a Tenuta Nuova 2008 in our cellars waiting to be enjoyed.

Soon we will talk to Casanova Di Neri’s winemaker about their wines and philosophy.

Photos © Azienda Agricola Casanova Di Neri

Casanova di Neri

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Alfio Cavallotto, the traditional Barolo winemaker

Aitor Trabado

16 February, 2017

Alfio Cavallotto, the traditional Barolo winemaker

Originally published in miamigoelvino.com 16/02/2017.

We recently talked about the family-owned Barolo winery Tenuta Viniviticola Cavallotto. They produce really interesting wines that bring pleasure to those starting to discover Barolo wines such as us and those more deeply into them. Today we will talk to Alfio Cavallotto, the house winemaker.

Buongiorno, Alfio, and thank you so much for your collaboration. You employ many organic agricultural methods in your vineyards, such as the use of predatory insects and no pesticides. What was the reason for starting this?

We started organic cultivation in 1976 (in 1974 we introduced “inerbimento,” the use of native grass cover over the entire site). We introduced this innovation so as to grow our vines in a completely sustainable environment. In the 60’s and 70’s chemical products to spray on the plants and soil were very dangerous for both consumers and farmers.

The soil of the Bricco Boschis Cru is calcareous clay marl. How the soil is shown in the wines?

The Calcium in the clay gives a particular minerality to the wines and very complex bouquet. Normally there is a good or great structure with a high quantity of polyphenols.

Do all your vineyards have the same soil?

No, we have 2 very different cru/hills and also inside a single cru there are many different zones. In some areas there are different kinds of clay (white, gray, yellow, orange, blue clay) with or without sand. The sand characterizes the wines as well: normally more sand means elegant wines with light body but intense perfume.

Which vineyard offers the best fruit?

The single vineyard with the best fruit is the central part of the Bricco Boschis hill called VIGNA SAN GIUSEPPE. It is also our oldest vineyard. If the vintage is characterized by warm and dry weather, also our secondcru Vignolo can be very fruity.

The Nebbiolo vineyards have different aspects or expositions. How does this reflect in the grapes?

We have planted our Nebbiolo vines exclusively to appropriate exposure for this delicate vine: Southeast, South and Southwest. It depends on the season but on average Southeast is the best exposition in warm vintages because there is a lot of sun just in the morning. Barolo there is fine and elegant. On Southwest exposures there is the maximum quantity of heat and light; Barolo there is richer in structure and perfect for a long age.

Are you experimenting in recent years the effects of the climate change?

Yes, a lot. From 1997 to 2015 we have had many warm vintages. These now come too frequently to ignore as isolated cases. We have learned to work in the vineyards in a different way: for example, now it is necessary to keep the leaves around the grapes so they stay in the shade and the sun can’t burn the skin of the grapes. In the past some or all of the leaves near the grapes were removed.

You employ different sizes of Slavonian botti for the ageing of your wines. Do you use regular-size oak barrels? How do you balance each size, ranging from 20 to 100 hectoliters?

It is necessary to have different size because in small botti the wine has a faster evolution; it is better if the vintage is classic, strong, rich in tannins and fruity. Conversely, in warm and elegant vintages it is better to use bigger botti that give slow evolution to preserve the freshness. We do not use the 225-liter barrique.

What does the use of concrete tanks bring into your wines?

We use concrete tanks for malolactic fermentation. Concrete tanks maintain a natural constant temperature and the wines can “breathe” a little bit. INOX (stainless steel) tanks are used in different way and there the wine is completely protected from air.

What’s the grape character you want to show in your wines?

In our Barolo we like to feel the complexity of many different typical aromas of Nebbiolo. In the mouth the best character should be the balance, power and elegance in the same moment.

What is your winemaking philosophy?

The philosophy is very classic and traditional even if, to do it today, sometimes it is necessary to use modern techniques: INOX machines for destemming, macerating, pumping, bottling etc.

In the vineyards it is the same traditional basis with much more experimentation to have the best quality possible in a complete organic production.

Which of the vineyards is more grateful to work with?

All our vineyards give us great satisfaction, sometimes even Dolcetto or Freisa can do so. But our most important single vineyard, VIGNA SAN GIUSEPPE, is particularly rich in good surprises; it is a very satisfying plot to work.

You have small plots of Freisa and Grignolino. How do these grapes translate into the wines?

They are very small plots but rich in my family’s history. They give a very traditional kind of grape and wine. Grignolino is fruity and made to drink young, similar to rosé wine. The vinification is short without any ageing in botti. Freisa is an early-drinking wine but it has structure and complexity. The maceration is only 5 days and the ageing is moderately long: 12 months in botti of 20-30 hl.

You elaborate a white wine using Pinot Noir. Will you produce a red Pinot Noir in the future?

We experimented red Pinot Noir in 1993, 2003, 2005. The wines were really interesting, in particular 1993 and 2005; very Burgundian wines with great elegance. Just the body was a little bit too rich. It is very expensive to produce an excellent Red Pinot Noir so for now we don’t have any plans to produce it in the future.

What kind of wines do you like to enjoy when you are not at work?

I enjoy wines of every part of the world but they must be classic in style: no evident vanilla taste, no artificial concentration, no factory wines, better from single vineyards, better organic.

Grazie mille, Alfio!

Tenuta Cavallotto

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Zenato, the soul of Lugana and the heart of Valpolicella

Aitor Trabado

13 February, 2017

Zenato, the soul of Lugana and the heart of Valpolicella

Originally published in miamigoelvino.com 13/02/2017.

A few months ago we had lunch at an Italian restaurant in Alicante. Taking a look at the wine list, one of them stood up, away from the typical Chianti or Nero d’Avola you can find everywhere. It was a Valpolicella Ripasso Superiore DOC wine, in this case a Ripasso produced by Zenato Winery. We were back then unaware of this style of wine, but we wanted to give it a try. And it was superb. It was the 2012 vintage, marking the 20thanniversary of this wine for the winery. A Ripasso is a wine that goes through a second fermentation in contact with the skins of the grapes used for producing the Amarone wine once they have been pressed. Sergio Zenato, the founder of the winery in 1960 and the first producer to elaborate a Ripasso wine decided to call it Ripassa. We were so impressed by this wine that we wanted to taste the other wine they had available at the restaurant of this winery so we bought a bottle of the Zenato Amarone 2010.

One day we were in the vicinity of the winery, we saw light inside and decided to pay them a visit.

The winery has 100 hectares of vineyards, 35 of them are in Sant’Ambrogio di Valpolicella and the remaining 65 hectares are in San Benedetto di Lugana, on the shores of the Garda Lake, in Veneto. After the passing of Sergio Zenato the winery is run by his wife Carla, their son Alberto and their daughter Nadia. In Valpolicella they produce some outstanding wines: the Valpolicella Superiore, the Valpolicella Ripasso Superiore, the Amarone Classico, the Amarone Classico Riserva Sergio Zenato and the Recioto. In the Garda Lake is where they also produce an array of really interesting wines. They also elaborate two red Veneto IGT wines and one Corvina Veronese IGT wine. In Lugana, however, they produce the Lugana S. Cristina and Lugana SanBenedetto, and the Lugana Riserva Sergio Zenato.

Carla and Nadia are also running a personal project they started in 1997 where they produce four wines, two white and two red. It is called Sansonina and it is a 13-hectare vineyard near Sirmione, also on the shores of the Garda Lake. The first wine was Sansonina, produced by carefully planning the revival of an old Merlot vineyard, an international variety to create a red wine in a land with a vocation for white. Then Lugana came to life and, since 2016, the two new labels: Evaluna, a Garda DOC Cabernet, and Vigna del Moraro Verde, a spontaneously fermented Lugana.

Alessia is in charge of the Marketing Department and she took really good care of us. She drove us around the facilities. First through the vineyards, where we could see the difference in the training systems and the density of the Trebbiano di Lugana plot and the Cabernet Sauvignon one. Then we went through the fermentation room, the ageing room and the underground cellar, where they store about 1,500 oak barrels.

At the end of the cellar you can find the Wine Library, that special room where any proud winelover would love to be left alone inside. In one side, the red wines room, and in the other side the white wines room, with samples of every vintage produced by Zenato. Both doors tightly closed to keep prying eyes and hands at bay.

Nearby, the tasting table, where Alessia set everything up for our amusement. With Parmigiano Reggiano cheese and an olive oil they also produce, she started pouring the best selection of their wines.

We started with two white wines.

The first one was the Sansonina Fermentazione Spontanea 2014. 100% Trebbiano di Lugana, aged in steel tanks. A smooth wine where the acidity and the fruit are very well balanced. Fresh and tasty. Good wine and also very interesting.

The second wine was the Lugana Riserva Sergio Zenato 2014. 100% Trebbiano di Lugana. 70% of the wine ferments in oak barrels and the remaining 30% in steel tanks. Once they are blended the wine ages in oak barrels for six months and twelve more in bottle. The wine is incredibly silky and balanced, with a good structure and a long finish. It was a really really good wine.

Our first red was Sansonina Merlot 2013. I was expecting a wine high in tannins but to be honest it was a big nice surprise. Smooth and silk in the mouth, with a very good structure, the fruit was really well balanced. Impressive wine.

Next came the Ripassa 2013. We love the Ripasso style and this wine was really amazing. We just love it so all we can say about this wine is that it is simply great.

Cresasso 2011 is Corvina Veronese 100%. The Corvina grape is the main variety used in both the Amarone and the Ripassa. The wine resembles the Ripassa. Very well balanced, good fruit structure and a good and long finish. One of those wines you can drink so easily with or without food.

Big brothers coming. The Amarone Classico 2012 was the first one. Amazing wine, with the soft touch of the Corvina and that smooth structure coming from the grapes being passified for almost 100 days. The wine is just great. The Amarone is a superb wine and this one produced by Zenato is a clear example of it.

Our last wine was the Amarone Classico Riserva 2010. The Riserva is only produced in years where the quality of the grape is exceptional. The result is, of course, an exceptional wine.

The wine selection made by Alessia was simply terrific. We are aware that we are describing each wine as “great,” “amazing,” or “fantastic,” but the truth is we loved all these wines. We love Italian wines and the ones from the Valpolicella are among our favorites. This time we discovered the Lugana and Valpolicella wines and they were really great wines. We have talked in the past about Italian white wines from other DOCs and now we have discovered these ones. We are falling in love with all of them.

Alessia asked us which wines we preferred. In this case it was a tough question. None of the seven was easy to say “not this one.” The two whites were really good and we chose the Riserva Sergio Zenato 51 to 49 over the Sansonina because the silkiness and structure coming from the oak was fascinating and it gave the wine a wonderful mouth.

As for the red wines, well, we love the Ripassa and the two Amarones were outstanding wines. The Cresasso was really good too. And the Sansonina Merlot was such a special wine. Tough call. All of them were great wines. All five are really enjoyable wines on their own. Sorry, we can’t choose only one. This is one of those occasions where a five-way draw is the best solution.

We want to thank Alessia for her hospitality and her patience for bearing all our questions.

Soon we will talk to Nadia Zenato, the company’s winemaker about their wines and especially about her Sansonina project, which we believe it offers great wines.

Zenato

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Roberto Felluga, the Lion and the Eagle in Collio

Aitor Trabado

9 February, 2017

Roberto Felluga, the Lion and the Eagle in Collio

Originally published in miamigoelvino.com 09/02/2017.

We recently run a feature on Marco Felluga, a winemaking family in Friuli Venezia Giulia. Felluga is a family with a long tradition in the business, with the fifth generation managing the two estates they have. Roberto Felluga is the manager and winemaker in both estates: Tenuta Marco Felluga, located in Gradisca d’Isonzo, Gorizia, and eight kilometers down the road is Russiz Superiore, in Capriva Del Friuli, Gorizia.

Buongiorno, Roberto and thank you for your cooperation. You run the two estates owed by the family. What do you look for in each of them?

My father Marco has bequeathed me two important companies, Marco Felluga, founded in 1956 in Gradisca d’Isonzo, and Russiz Superiore, purchased in 1967 in Capriva del Friuli. He began his training at the prestigious Oenological School of Conegliano and it is thanks to him that the path of innovation, absolute quality and research started, the same path that still today I continue to follow with passion. I believe it is essential to be able to maintain a balance between tradition and the knowledge inherited from the previous four generations and new techniques that are being developed in recent years: with my employees I usually face many challenges and goals for both wineries during the year. The attention that we put into every stage of processing, from the cultivation of the vines to the type of vinification of the grapes, comes from the great respect we have for the Collio, a unique and unrepeatable territory.

Marco Felluga is known as The Lion and Russiz Superiore as The Eagle. Where do these names come from?

The symbols that you now find on the labels represent our origins and they bear witness of the great link with the territory in which the two companies have their headquarters. They are the historical and cultural heritage of these lands: Marco Felluga is identified with the Lion of St. Mark because Gradisca d’Isonzo – the fortified town of Collio, surrounded by walls designed by Leonardo da Vinci, home of the winery – was once under the influence of the Venetian Republic, whose image is still prevalent today with the same design, while Russiz Superiore shows the emblem of Prince Torre-Tasso, one of the first lords of the lands of Capriva del Friuli, who came in Friuli in 1273. The two-headed eagle, therefore, brings back memories of the Habsburg influences that have affected this area, touched by long and numerous border wars. This explains the origin of the Lion and the Eagle of Collio.

Here in Collio you have a special location, between the Adriatic Sea and the Pre–Julian Alps. How does this affects to your vineyards?

It does! And very much! The Collio is in a special position in the heart of Friuli: the wine area extends across the Northern part of the province of Gorizia, in a territory of about 1500 hectares of vineyards on the hills. Protected by the Consorzio Collio, founded in 1964, is one of the oldest Italian DOC area, the further North denomination with Mediterranean climate: thanks to the proximity of the Adriatic Sea, in fact, (we are 30 km from the coast) and to the protection of the mountains, the Pre-Julian Alps, the climate is ideal for the viticulture, with significant temperature variations, both in summer and during harvesting. Every hill has its own microclimate and soils are known as “flysch”.

The soil in this area is called Ponca. Which are its characteristics?

The “flysch”, or “Ponca” in Friulian language, is characterized by an alternation of marl (calcareous silts and clays) and sandstones (cemented sands) that originated about 100 million years ago from the phenomenon of erosion during the Eocene era: stratification with a waterproof surface that allows the water flow and is responsible for very sweet morphology of the land.

How’s your winemaking philosophy?

The same inherited from my father: with foresight and patience he defined a philosophy based on extreme quality and development of the different varieties. After a long and mass selection, what I try to do, helped by favorable soil and climate, is to keep the fruit, salinity and acidity – characteristics of this territory – and transferring them from grapes to wine. A job in which honesty and protection are not words, but a way of life, a wealth that I still want to respect, protect and govern.

Do you have a different winemaking approach to each estate?

Marco Felluga is headquartered in Gradisca d’Isonzo and owns 100 hectares, between ownership, management and rental, which are located in Farra, San Floriano, Oslavia and Cormòns. Instead, Russiz Superiore has 100 hectares merged in Capriva del Friuli, 50 of which are vineyards. Both companies are together by the same values and the same family ownership, which seeks to enhance the features of each vineyard and microclimate. In the production process, the whites of Marco Felluga monovines ferment in stainless steel tanks, with the exception of Collio Bianco Molamatta and Collio Pinot Grigio Mongris Riserva. For Russiz Superiore whites about 85% of the wine is aged in stainless, whereas the remaining 15% stay in wood, even for the single-variety.

You employ oak barrels just for small percentages of the white wines.

The use of wood, in the Marco Felluga and Russiz Superiore productions is intended only as a complement of the characteristics of the wines, not for the production of white or red aged in oaks. The idea of refining the Russiz Superiore’s white wines to about 15% – a percentage that varies each year depending on the type and vintage – aims to give to the wine complexity and different structures. The scents and the natural aromas of the wines have to prevail and be exalted over the wood sensations.

What are the characteristics or identity you want each estate to reflect?

The wine in all its expressions is unique. Always. The selections of Marco Felluga and Russiz Superiore have bouquet that come from the great attention we put on the most important elements that determinate the expression of a wine: fruit, minerality, flavor and complexity. Every time we try to maximize the potential of our land, described as “the most popular Italian region for white wines”, offering selections characterized by remarkable complexity and intensity, without neglecting the elegance, fundamental element, in my opinion, for the pleasantness of a wine.

You like to work with small yields per vine.

Very much. Over the years, we have experimented different techniques, reaching up to 8,000 plants per hectare. To date, the density is about 6,000 plants per hectare: we have noticed that, according to the quality standards that we set for ourselves, this density allows us to maintain a good balance between leaf surface and fruit.

How does the Pinot Grigio work in both estates?

The Pinot Grigio is one of the most important grape varieties grown in the Collio since 1800, and is now one of the white varieties most widespread in the region and in the world. The name Mongris, from Marco Felluga line, is a contraction of the words “single variety” and “Pinot Gris” (“Gris” in Friulian language). Furthermore, we produce the Collio Russiz Superiore Pinot Grigio, where about 15% of the wine is aged in wood, and the Marco Felluga Mongris Riserva, which ferments 100% in wood and remains even two years on yeasts.

You produce single-varietal wines with both red and white varietals and then blends. Which varieties work better on their own and which better in blends?

Among the productions of Marco Felluga and Russiz Superiore there are 19 wines DOC Collio: switching from Ribolla to Friulano, Pinot Bianco and Pinot Grigio, from Chardonnay to Sauvignon and then get to Refosco Dal Peduncolo Rosso, Ronco dei Moreri to Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. Not all varieties are vinified by both wineries: as time and experience passed by, we noticed that some varieties express in the best way the fruit through a steel vinification, while in others, the further passage in wood would make the complexity more evident. The same reasoning for the research and in assemblies of the grapes: the Marco Felluga Collio Bianco Molamatta, for example, is composed of Pinot Blanc – fermented in small oak barrels – Friulano and Ribolla Gialla, while the Russiz Superiore Collio Rosso Riserva degli Orzoni includes Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot.

Does each estate have a representative variety? Which red and white wines offer the best character of each estate?

The (Mongris) Marco Felluga Pinot Grigio, and Sauvignon for Russiz Superiore, are two of the most studied varieties in our cellars. For each of these varieties we produce every year the Marco Felluga Collio Pinot Grigio Mongris white label – completely vinified in stainless steel, the Russiz Superiore Collio Pinot Grigio who has about 15% of oak aging, and Marco Felluga Collio Pinot Grigio Mongris Riserva black label, which instead is aged in wood and is left to rest for about two years on the lees. The same research is conducted on Sauvignon, leading us to make wine in stainless Sauvignon Collio by Marco Felluga with white label, Sauvignon Russiz Superiore Collio with 15% of wood and finally the Collio Sauvignon Reserve Russiz Superiore that besides aged in wood, it remains three years on the lees.

How do you manage the white wines to age so well? We heard of tasting a 1980s one that was superb.

We try to enhance what nature has to offer, looking to interpret the different vintages with care, patience, professionalism and experience. In particular, the Russiz Superiore’s wines are characterized by a particular complexity, a structure and an elegance that allows them to be appreciated even after several years. In the historic cellar in Capriva del Friuli are still preserved the old vintages: special bottles that are opened during special tastings or verticals, which we share with friends or our staff to understand the evolution and to continue exciting us.

How are the white Riserva wines you produce?

All the white wines are suitable to be drunk relatively young, but can be aged for several years to find the mineral complexity and very interesting ripe fruit. This is the last major project I’ve developed a few years ago, and that led me to the production of three white wines Reserves: the Marco Felluga Collio Pinot Grigio Mongris Riserva, the Russiz Superiore Collio Sauvignon Riserva and Russiz Superiore Collio Pinot Bianco Riserva, already very appreciated.

Which wines are those giving you the biggest satisfaction?

Each wine is a part of us, of our history and of our passions. It is true, however, that the blends are an exclusive production of each company. For this reason, we can mention for Marco Felluga Collio Bianco Molamatta and Collio Rosso Carantan: the first gathers the grapes Pinot Blanc – fermented in small oak barrels – Friulano and Ribolla Gialla, in the second, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon that after aging for 18-20 months in oak, rests for a year. Among the Russiz Superiore flagships we find the most awarded Col Disôre, a blend of Pinot Bianco, Friulano, Ribolla Gialla and Sauvignon and Rosso Riserva degli Orzoni, composed of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot.

Which wines do you drink when you are not working?

The choice of wines as good as the pairings and the culinary offerings is based on the flavors, tastes and emotions that I choose from time to time the wine.

Grazie mille, Roberto!

Roberto Felluga

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