Collio Wine Tasting

On October 26th I was privileged to pour wines for one of the wine producers of Collio Italy. The event was organized by my good friends at Balzac Communications and held in the showroom of the San Francisco Vespa dealer.

This was a small and intimate event but one that had a number of really nice wines and a couple of real surprises.

First of all: for those that are unfamiliar wit it, Collio is a DOC wine region in North east Italy - right next to the border of Slovania. I am told that the designated region actually extends across the border. Colli are hills and this region got its name for its rolling terrain. They are specially noted for their floral white wines. According to J. Robinson's Oxford Companion to Wine, Collio, in the 1970s, was the region that convinced Italians that they actually could make good white wines.

Pinot grigio, Pinot blanc, Friulano (aka Tokai, aka Sauvigonasse), Sauvignon (blanc and gris), and Ribolla Gialla are the key grapes. The first thing that I noticed was that one of my bottles was marked just "Sauvignon". Never sure when dealing with Italian grapes, I checked with the sponsors to make sure this was the same Sauvignon blanc that we all have come to know and love. Just this last week (mid November) I learned that European wine laws allowed the vintners to use the names of 7 varieties on their labels instead of just the area. "Sauvignon" is the generic for blends of Sauvignon bland and Sauvignon gris, though the wine could be 100% of either.

The key wine of Collio is (in my mind at least) Friulano. This is a light, dry, floral white wine, somewhat high in acidity, but one that makes a clean refreshing wine. Pinot grigio and Sauvignon now have more acreage than Friulano but this is the grape that made Collio famous.

As I was pouring and during a break in the traffic, one of my colleagues Connie called me over to taste one of her wines. "If you close your eyes and taste this, you will swear it is a red wine" was her challenge. I did close my eyes, I did taste, and I did swear. Ribolla gialla was the grape. The winemaker had fermented it on its skins, it had tannins, it had body, and if I had not not known better I would thought it was red. But it wasn't. Normally it is made light and delicate, but this winemaker gave it real character. And it worked.

Ribolla has a story. It was introduced into the Collio / Friuli region during the 13th century. It became so popular that the Italian poet Boccaccio specifically called out Ribolla as one of the main traits and causes of the deadly sin of Gluttony.

I didn't taste a bad wine that night. And I became a fan of Collio wines.

john