SommSelect Editorial Director David Lynch gazes in wonder at one of Italy’s rarest and most sought-after red wines, and recalls a long-ago visit with its reclusive producer.
Perhaps you’ve heard the term “unicorn wine” thrown around and wondered what it means. As you might have guessed, it refers to a wine that is more spoken of than seen, to the point where you wonder if it’s real. The wines of Miani epitomize the category: they turn up on wine lists and in private cellars here and there, but importers have struggled to develop lasting relationships with Miani’s owner, Enzo Pontoni, who is known as a bit of a recluse. I still cling to a fading memory of my 2000 visit to his winery in the village of Buttrio, in the northeastern Italian region of Friuli: His was (and still is) a true ‘garage’ operation, and when I first arrived it was his mother who greeted me, after which Enzo appeared astride his tractor (which he clearly would have preferred to remain on rather than deal with me). Luckily, I had been sent by a mutual friend, so the initial chill wore off and, after some time passed, mamma brought us a plate of salami and cheese as he ‘thieved’ barrel samples for me to taste. In the intervening years, I’ve thought of that visit a lot (it feels now like having been at one of Van Halen’s backyard-party shows in the ‘70s before they blew up) because rarely have I been able to put hands on many of his wines. Whether it’s his rich, honeyed whites from Friulano and Sauvignon Blanc or his dense, concentrated reds from Refosco and/or Merlot, their distribution in the US is spotty at best, but committed fans—like our source for this parcel of his 2012 “Filip” Merlot—always find a way. Loathe as I am to ‘Frenchify’ this wine, I can’t resist calling it the Château Le Pin of Italy. It is minuscule-production, ultra-concentrated, garagiste Merlot of seemingly bottomless depth. And I’m compelled to add: As these kinds of wines go, it’s relatively affordable.
The so-called “Bordeaux varieties”—Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cab Franc—have a long history in northeastern Italy, and in Friuli-Venezia Giulia especially. Merlot (which in Friuli gets pronounced with a hard ‘t’ at the end, i.e. mehr-LOTE) remains a staple of the Friulian red-wine diet, and when given the low-yield treatment as at Miani, can rival the best examples from Bordeaux’s Right Bank. Miani farms roughly 13 hectares of vines in and around Buttrio, which is a key wine town in the Friuli Colli Orientali DOC—a zone which hugs the border with Slovenia and, along with neighboring Collio, is the source of Friuli’s best wines. As in Collio, the soils are a calcareous (i.e. limestone-rich) marl-and-sandstone mix known locally as ponka. Over the years, the slightly cooler Collio has solidified its reputation as the source of Friuli’s—and perhaps all of Italy’s—most aromatic, structured, delineated white wines, while the Colli Orientali has quite a few important reds to complement its equally impressive lineup of whites.
Pontoni’s vineyards are a mix of estate-owned and leased parcels, all of which he farms organically and tends to maniacally. His “Filip” Merlot gets its name from the family that owns its vineyard source, in the nearby village of Rosazzo, whose 13th century abbey is a centerpiece of Friulian viticulture and the source of some the region’s greatest red wines (the abbey’s vineyards are today overseen by the Livio Felluga family). To say that Pontoni favors low yields is putting it mildly: he only makes about 600-700 cases of wine, in total, in any given year. With 13 hectares of vines to work with, he could produce exponentially more grapes/wine; this goes a long way in explaining why his wines cost what they do. The “Filip” 2012 was aged more than two years in 100% new French oak barrels
What you get with the 2012 “Filip” Merlot is a red wine that tastes as if every single grape was not only hand-selected but gently caressed and whispered to seductively on its way to the fermentation tank. In the glass, it is an opaque ruby-black in color, viscous and shimmering, with aromas of black plum, blackberry compote, violets, dark chocolate, leather, coffee, a hint of menthol, crushed stones, and warm baking spices. The level of concentration is off the charts and yet it avoids any syrupy tendencies. It is a muscular, well-structured wine by any Merlot standard, with graphite and stone notes on the finish. Based on the way the acid and tannin frame the considerable fruit extract, I see this wine aging for a good decade more at least; if you’re drinking it now, decant it an hour before serving in large Bordeaux stems at 60 degrees. And while I’m loathe to ‘Frenchify’ the food pairing, the attached duck stew recipe from legendary chef Daniel Boulud seems tailor-made for this epic red. Enjoy!
— D.L.
