Displaying items by tag: Friuli Venezia Giulia

Summary: 

Join Decanter Magazine journalist Richard Baudains for an insider look at the skin-contact white wines of Friuli.

The orange wines of Friuli have become one of the iconic wine styles produced in the region.

In this webinar, Richard Baudains will explore the various maceration process protocols adopted in Friuli as well as the most suitable grape varieties used for this style. Richard will also discuss the profile of the wines and some of the principal orange wine producers of Friuli.

Presenter: Richard Baudains

Richard Baudains was born and bred on the island of Jersey, a corner of the British Isles with French origins, hence the French surname. He studied literature and trained to be a teacher of English as a foreign language to satisfy a wanderlust which eventually brought him to Italy, where he has resided for the past 30 years. He wrote his first article for Decanter Magazine in 1989 and has been a regular contributor on Italian wine ever since. He is the Regional Chair for the Veneto at the Decanter World Wine Awards, an occasional taster on the jury at the Concours Mondial du Sauvignon Blanc, a member of the team of the Slow Wine Guide for Friuli-Venezia Giulia and lecturer in wine journalism at Slow Food’s Università delle Scienze Gastronomiche. He lives in Gorizia and in his day job he directs a language school. 

Learn more about Italian Wines:

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Collio (or Collio Goriziano)

DOC Collio’s vineyards date back to pre-Roman times; they were of renown then and are held in high esteem now. Their impressive whites are considered the finest in Friuli and are among the finest in Italy.

Friuli Grave DOC

Friuli Grave was previously called Grave del Friuli but is often simply referred to as Grave. This is the largest DOC, both in terms of area under vine and in production. It accounts for more than one-third of Friuli’s total wine production.

The Super-Whites of Friuli

In the late 1970s, the producer, Jermann, created Vintage Tunina, a complex blend of native and international white grapes that became iconic among Friuli’s superior white blends. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Jermann inspired several other Friuli producers, particularly in the DOCs of Collio and Friuli Colli Orientali.

Advances in the cellars coupled with better vineyard management and Friuli’s natural gift of a temperate climate, resulted in concentrated wines with an extra layer of richness. From the 1970s onward, Friuli gained commercial success and popularity for its white wines.

A number of Friuli’s native varieties were rescued from the brink of disappearance. Let us introduce you to Vitovska and Pignolo.

Vitovska: The name of this white grape variety is of clear Slavic origin, but it is generally considered to be a native variety of both eastern Friuli and Slovenia, as it was historically only cultivated in Carso (in the province of Trieste) and in Slovenia.

With a treasure trove of native white varieties, Friuli Venezia Giulia makes some of Italy’s most exciting white wines.
Friuli Venezia Giulia is considered the birthplace of modern Italian white winemaking. In the late 1960s, a small group of inspired producers began crafting clean, fresh and fruity white wines—a monumental shift from the tired, oxidized versions that had been largely produced prior.