I love the bars in the lobbies of posh hotels. I love watching people come in and out, business meetings, fleeting dates, stolen glances. I like the tired faces, the energy, the music, the stories. For me, there is no better place to write because here I can isolate and inspire myself like nowhere else. So here I am, after a delicious Kobbo sushi (Viale Vittorio Veneto 32) which offers an excellent quality lunch menu for just €16.80, waiting to immerse myself in the extraordinary world of great Friulian white wines that Go Wine brings to Milan today, at the Hotel NH Touring. By the way, I hope that all the next Go Wine events in Milan will still be here: this hotel is delightful, a stone's throw from the Central Station, and the room used is also just the right size for tasting in peace.
I tasted 25 Friulian wines in about two hours and took my time, as always, to write down all the details. Then I thought about how to set up this article and decided to share what for me were the five best tastingsonly choose them among dry white wines. I anticipate that I enjoyed a passito wine from Lis Amoris EXCEPTIONALbut since I promised myself I would write an article on Friulian white wines of that I did not do a professional tasting.
Friulian wines at Go wine: here are the ones I liked best!
Friulian wine #MBestTaste/1: Lenardon
White wineis a blend of approximately equal parts yellow and white muscat.
My tasting. Pale straw yellow, consistent. The nose is amazing with notes of camomile flowers, black tea and very intense lemon. It is a very special wine that I would recognise among a thousand wines when blind and with which I had already fallen in love with Mare and Vitovska. In the mouth it is consistent and savoury, with a nice structure and great balance. Long sip.
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Friulian Wines #MBestTaste/2: Specogna 'Duality' 2020
Friuli Colli Orientali DOC Sauvignon.
My tasting. Pale straw yellow and brilliant, consistent. The nose is extraordinary, pure love. Sauvignon declined in all possible hydrocarbon notes, cedar is declined from squeezed to candied peel, vanilla, passion fruit envelops. In the mouth it envelops and fills, like a perfume. The pseudo-caloricity envelops, the structure conquers. Superlative.
Friulian wines #MBestTaste/3: Lis Neris
Friuli Isonzo DOCcombined stainless steel/wood ageing on fine deposit for 11 months with frequent bâtonnage. Maturation in bottle for a minimum of 12 months.
My tasting. Bright greenish yellow, consistent. Intense nose characteristic of Sauvignon, very varietal as I like it (once we used to say cat's pee, now we say boxwood, but the substance is the same: this is a Sauvignon that tastes like Sauvignon). The bouquet is enriched with tomato leaf and grapefruit). In the mouth it is soft, fresh, very savoury and very long.
Friulian wines #MBestTaste/4: Vigna Petrussa, 'Richenza' 2018
Venezia Giulia IGT Whiteis a blend of 4 grape varieties: Friulano, Malvasia Istriana, Rhine Riesling and Picolit, which are vinified separately. It matures 18 months in French oak barrels and 6 months in the bottle.
My tasting. Straw yellow and bright, consistent. The nose is very interesting with notes of candied and fresh apricot, vanilla diplomatic cream, hydrocarbon. In the mouth it is consistent, with a present pseudo-caloricity. Structured and elegant, it needs a few more years in the bottle to be fully appreciated.
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Friulian wines #MBestTaste/5: Castello di Spessa
Collio DOCIt makes only steel from vinification to ageing.
My tasting. Pale straw yellow with greenish highlights. The nose is typical of intense and delicious Sauvignon, with notes of herbs, ripe pear, cedar grass, boxwood and tomato leaf. This is also a very varietal Sauvignon. In the mouth it is structured and elegant, savoury and well-dosed pseudo-caloric. Long sip.
I really like horizontal tastings and this Go Wine dedicated to the Friulian wines managed to make me understand a couple of things about the 2020 vintage. First of all, for me, 2020 was NOT a good year for Friulano. Friulano is a grape variety that I love so much and that can excite me like few others when it is good. In the 2020 I did not find a single Friulano that lived up to my expectations. Yesterday I tasted wines that I knew well and they were absolutely not up to the standards of the previous vintages. Yesterday, only Castello di Spessa's Friulano and Felluga's were discreet. The others were all to be forgotten: no structure, barely perceptible aromas. Even the Istrian Malvasia lacked a little opulence and longevity. The grape variety that, in my opinion, has gained the most is Ribolla Gialla: a variety that I don't like very much, but I must say that those tasted yesterday were not very structured, but with very pleasant citrus aromas. A much more interesting vintage for the Sauvignon, which managed to release all its varietal aromas.
The producers taking part in these Go Wine events are always of the highest quality, and today again some of the best wineries in Friuli were present. So I thank President Massimo Corrado for his work and invite him to continue in this way: quality wines for a quality publicwith lots of people well timed to avoid crowds in a lovely little room like the NH Touring Hotel in Milan.
Cheers 🍷
Chiara
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