The theme of this month's Wine Blogging Wednesday (hosted by the fine folks over at Fork & Bottle) is white wines from Friuli-Venezia Giulia. Seeing as I had yet to ever partake of a Tocai Friulano, I saw this as an opportunity to add another new grape to my list. The grape that constitutes the wines known as Tocai Friulano goes by the same name in Friuli but is known as Sauvignon vert or Sauvignonasse in some other places it is grown, such as Chile. It is the most popular and most widely planted white grape variety in the region. Thanks to some litigious Hungarians, these wines will soon be known as “Friulano”, lest consumers inadvertently confuse this crisp dry wine from Italy with predominantly sweet Hungarian wines using entirely different grapes.
My favorite Annapolis retailer did have several Friuli wines, but no Tocai so I ventured downtown to MacArthur Beverages where they had a couple to choose from, selecting the 2006 Villa Russiz at the salesperson's suggestion. As warned, these wines do not come cheap. Both options were right around $30.
As recommended, I did choose to decant this wine for two hours. Of course, being nosy, I first tackled this wine straight from bottle with a light chill. The color is medium straw with golden highlights. Very pretty, actually. The nose was predominantly green apples and some green grapeskin. Green apple continued to the tongue with pronounced but somewhat blunt mineral notes and moderately crisp acidity. The finish was fairly long and it is a nicely balanced wine. It reminded me of a more fruit-driven Silvaner on first impression. After a couple of hours of breathing time, the most stark change was the nose, which offered the added dimension of melon and some slight fresh peach tones. The wine was also a little more assertive in the mouth the second time around but the flavor profile remained about the same.
This is a very solid wine and a bottle I will sure to drink dry before the sun rises on Wednesday morning but I cannot consider this a very high QPR based on the sale price.
My favorite Annapolis retailer did have several Friuli wines, but no Tocai so I ventured downtown to MacArthur Beverages where they had a couple to choose from, selecting the 2006 Villa Russiz at the salesperson's suggestion. As warned, these wines do not come cheap. Both options were right around $30.
As recommended, I did choose to decant this wine for two hours. Of course, being nosy, I first tackled this wine straight from bottle with a light chill. The color is medium straw with golden highlights. Very pretty, actually. The nose was predominantly green apples and some green grapeskin. Green apple continued to the tongue with pronounced but somewhat blunt mineral notes and moderately crisp acidity. The finish was fairly long and it is a nicely balanced wine. It reminded me of a more fruit-driven Silvaner on first impression. After a couple of hours of breathing time, the most stark change was the nose, which offered the added dimension of melon and some slight fresh peach tones. The wine was also a little more assertive in the mouth the second time around but the flavor profile remained about the same.
This is a very solid wine and a bottle I will sure to drink dry before the sun rises on Wednesday morning but I cannot consider this a very high QPR based on the sale price.
1 comments:
On Wine-Searcher, I see a couple of retailers have this wine for about $25...a price that would please you more.
Still, I'm so glad you enjoyed the wine and I'm hoping you'll keep exploring. Villa Russiz is an excellent producer.
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