Why it tastes like this
Why does Friuli white taste like that?
Italy’s most textural dry whites, from Collio and Colli Orientali — more weight and structure than the Italian norm.
These are the contributors WineHQ can name for Friuli white as a category. Every one is a tendency, a convention or a mechanism, and each carries a label saying which. None of it describes how a particular producer made a particular bottle — real practice varies enormously, and a causal account that read as a recipe would be false for a great many of the wines it covers.
The grape
What does the variety bring before anyone does anything to it?
Friulano
TendencyCharacteristically very low tannin and medium-plus acidity. Commonly associated with almond, pear, white pepper, hay.
Not claiming: That every wine from this variety shows these characteristics. This is the range across the category, and site and winemaking move wines within and beyond it.
Pinot Gris
TendencyCharacteristically very low tannin. Commonly associated with pear, green apple, lemon, honeysuckle.
Not claiming: That every wine from this variety shows these characteristics. This is the range across the category, and site and winemaking move wines within and beyond it.
Ribolla Gialla
TendencyCharacteristically low tannin and high acidity. Commonly associated with green apple, lemon peel, white flowers, apricot.
Not claiming: That every wine from this variety shows these characteristics. This is the range across the category, and site and winemaking move wines within and beyond it.
Place and climate
What did the growing season do to the fruit?
Friuli-Venezia Giulia: continental influence
AssociationA wide day–night temperature range is associated with better acid retention, because cool nights slow the respiration that consumes malic acid while warm days continue to ripen the fruit.
Not claiming: That altitude or continentality guarantees high acidity. Both widen diurnal range on average and neither determines the outcome.
Winemaking
What decisions were taken between the vineyard and the bottle?
Sauvignon Blanc is commonly fermented cool in stainless steel under protective handling, because the thiols that carry its tropical character oxidise readily and cooler fermentation is associated with higher ester retention.
Varies: Bordeaux and an increasing number of producers elsewhere barrel-ferment and lees-age it instead, producing a quite different wine.
Not claiming: That Sauvignon Blanc must be handled this way.
Stainless steel and inert vessels
ConventionFermenting in a vessel that contributes nothing, to preserve fruit and freshness.
Not claiming: That every producer of this style uses this method, or that using it is required.
Age
What changes after the wine is bottled?
Development in bottle
TendencyThree to five years. Friulano, Ribolla Gialla and the region’s Pinot Grigio have more substance than most Italian whites, and the skin-contact wines of the Collio run considerably longer.
Not claiming: That a wine of this style will develop these characters. Ageing potential varies by producer, vintage and storage, and most wine is better young.
Follow it up
Style
Friuli white
The taste profile, food matches, serving guidance and what to try next.
Science
Why wine is like this
The mechanisms behind each contributor above, explained at the scope they have been established.
Myths
What people get wrong
Several of the explanations usually given for wines like this do not survive checking.
Sources
Sources consulted
- Vitis International Variety Catalogue (VIVC) — Julius Kühn-Institut, Institute for Grapevine Breeding Geilweilerhof
- Italian DOP and IGP wine register — Ministero dell’agricoltura, della sovranità alimentare e delle foreste (MASAF)
- Wine Grapes: A Complete Guide to 1,368 Vine Varieties — Robinson, Harding & Vouillamoz (Allen Lane, 2012)
- UC Davis Department of Viticulture and Enology — University of California, Davis
- Wines of Argentina / Instituto Nacional de Vitivinicultura — Wines of Argentina; INV
- Research on volatile thiols in Sauvignon Blanc — Peer-reviewed oenological literature
- New Zealand Winegrowers annual report — New Zealand Winegrowers
- The Australian Wine Research Institute — AWRI
- WSET educational materials and the Systematic Approach to Tasting — Wine & Spirit Education Trust
- eAmbrosia — the EU geographical indications register — European Commission