Great satisfaction this year for Valchiarò Friulano Colli Orientali, which the prestigious online magazine Wine Surf has awarded “ Best White Wine of Italy” and for the Tastevin award to Roberto Scubla Pomedes Colli Orientali “Best Wine of Friuli).
These are two great awards in a not really happy moment because of the pandemia.
However it is a great contribution to the work I'm doing with 'my' wineries and it's certainly a boost of confidence in the very near future.
I am also very satisfied because a “Friulano” (Tocai) stood out impeccably among all the Italian white wines tasted (there were really a lot of them!) and it's a winner both in the single varietal version and in the Pomedes blend where it becomes essential in the composition of the wine.
I cannot forget the successes obtained with all the other guides in Italy and all 'my' wineries, which were extremely happy with these results.I would like to list them all the in alphabetical order
L’assaggiatore , la prestigiosa rivista dell’ONAV , mi dedica una bella intervista.
Recently I have been in Champagne, alone, and with a great desire to see what has changed, if any, in the production of the most famous bubbly wine in the world.
The desire to see what was happening was so much and so I wanted to touch some Maisons, the more artisan ones and exchange technical information on the production of Champagne. I went to the Côte de Blanc in the Marne Valley and in the mountains of Reims, symbolic places, where I tried to gain direct experience of the technical but also philosophical novelties concerning this great sparkling wine of the world.
I understood, as always happens, that the territory or rather the terroir always wins, where climate, soil and man make the difference. In fact, there are no big news, no new biotechnologies or new winemaking schemes: this has always been the case and a unique and inimitable product has always come out, period and that's it. Not that other parts of the world make lower quality products, but different ones do.
It's now been a year since I started working with a Romanian company, Vrancea.
I must say that the land, the environment and the people have conquered me. First of all, we are at the 45th parallel and therefore the climatic conditions related to the sunshine are identical to Bordeaux. From an agronomic point of view, the soil and the rainfall are absolutely suitable for the production of high quality grapes with full ripening that is not too early, but regular starting from the beginning of September for the first white grapes. The humidity is not too high in summer, so there is little fungal pressure especially during harvest, which is generally carried out in conditions of low rainfall and good ventilation. The grapes, generally grown in guyot, ripen gradually and reach analytical values of absolute resprct both in the white and in the red version.
Some general considerations on oenology in these times. We are in an epochal period for our wines. The need to make more drinkable but also structured wines is becoming more and more widespread. This is not an easy situation for today's oenologist. Wines must maintain their territorial character and therefore differentiate themselves on the world scene.
We have a climate that has definitely changed with hot summers and mild winters. What to do? I think the solution is to increasingly develop a territorial concept with the affirmation of native grape varieties that have long since adapted to the territory. For the so-called international ones we have to work on materials that provide the right rootstocks suitable for dry climates and then find a balance aimed more at phenolic maturity than sugar. For this reason, production per strain will also have to consider this need. The technologies of the winery will also have to be reviewed, especially in the choice of yeasts, which will have to be sought among the less alcohologenic ones. The production companies are already taking steps in this direction.
