I’m a member of the Dutch affiliation of wine connoisseurs (Verenigde Vinologen Nederland). As a member of the journey committee of the VVN, I manage wine journeys to Italy along with Fred Nijhuis. That is the fifth and remaining day of our tour of Friuli. Within the first 4 days we’ve visited Friuli Grave, Collio, Brda, and Friuli Colli Orientali.
Our remaining go to in Friuli earlier than going house was the Consorzio Tutela Vini Doc Friuli Aquileia. Friuli Aquileia DOC (marked as quantity 10 on the map) is a small DOC with solely 16 wineries.
We have been acquired on the wine bar of the Ca’ Bolani vineyard by the President of the Consortium and Property Supervisor of Ca’ Bolani, Roberto Marcolini, and the Vice President, Francesco Tarlao. They defined to us that Aquileia is generally flat and has a excessive range of soil, with iron, pebbles, clay, and sand. The main target is on Pinot Bianco for whites and Refosco for reds. Refosco actually means “king (re) of the darkish (fosco)”. Because of the proximity of the Adriatic Sea, the whites have a saline character.
We tasted a really good overview of wines from Friuli Aquileia DOC, beginning with white. Though that they had talked about a concentrate on Pinot Bianco, our tasting targeted extra on Friulano:
- Foffani Friuli Aquileia Pinot Grigio DOC 2023: salty, recent.
- Ca’ Bolani Friuli Aquileia Pinot Bianco DOC 2024: pear, mellow, recent.
- Puntini Friuli Aquileia Friulano DOC 2024: physique, almond end, steadiness.
- Tarlao Friuli Aquileia Friulano DOC Albero del Noce 2024 (10 hours chilly pores and skin contact): ardour fruit, mineral, recent, steadiness. Our favourite wine, made by the vp of the consortium.
- La Corta Friuli Aquileia Friulano DOC 2023: construction, salty.
- Donda Friuli Aquileia Friulano DOC 2023 (aged on the lees): tropical fruit, creamy, salty.
- Ballamiunut Friuli Aquileia Friulano DOC 2023 (aged on the lees): recent, salty.
- Ca’ Bolani Friuli Aquileia Bianco DOC Tamanis 2022 (50% Friulano and 30% Pinot Bianco aged in giant oak for 1 yr, 13% Malvasia Istriana, 7% Sauvignon Blanc): tropical fruit, recent, almond end.
- Mulino delle Tolle Friuli Aquileia Malvasia DOC 2023 (20% new oak, chilly pores and skin contact): fragrant, almond end.
- Terre di Palazzatto Friuli Aquileia Sauvignon Blanc DOC 2023: tomato leaf, crisp.
- Valpanera Friuli Aquileia Traminer Aromatico DOC 2024: recent, floral, fragrant (however not as fragrant as a Traminer from Alto Adige).
We continued with reds:
- Cantine Rigonat Friuli Aquileia Merlot DOC 2023 (chrome steel): mild and recent.
- Mulino delle Tolle Friuli Aquileia Refosco DOC 2022: darkish fruit, acidity, sticky tannin.
- Ballaminut Friuli Aquileia Refosco DOC 2022 (20% of the grapes dried earlier than vinification): raisins, recent, barely astringent.
- Brojli Friuli Aquileia Refosco Riserva DOC 2021 (1 yr in oak, clay soil): oak, astringent.
- La Rosta Friuli Aquileia Refosco DOC 2020: strawberry and rhubarb jam, recent, mushy tannins.
- Ca’ Bolani Friuli Aquileia Rosso DOC 2020 (50% Refosco, 35% Merlot, 15% Cabernet Franc, 18 months in small and enormous oak): recent, tannin.
For our remaining meal we had lunch at Ristorante Corallo within the city of Aquileia.
We have been very joyful to see our favourite wine of that morning’s tasting on the wine record, and so had that with our lunch.
Many Italian eating places specializing in seafood have “home antipasti” that’s so bountiful that it’s a meal by itself. This was additionally the casa at Ristorante Corallo, the place the antipasti included mantis shrimp, scallop and mussel gratin, fish “in saor”, squid salad, fish paté, and poached white fish. With some bread and salad on the facet, we had a beautiful lunch.
We completed with tiramisù. If you’re within the space I can definitely advocate Ristorante Corallo. It was scrumptious and the service was very skilled. They knew we had a aircraft to catch and so the antipasti (that I had pre-ordered by e-mailing with Alex, the proprietor) have been on the desk inside minutes of our arrival.
One member of our group had pushed all the way in which from the Netherlands to Friuli, and he returned along with his automobile loaded up with the wine had bought on the varied wineries we had visited.
