Somehow, I still feel the need to litigate the case for Friulano, the native grape of Italy’s Friuli-Venezia Giulia region. Not enough of my peers have embraced this variety as the world-class white I’m convinced it is.
Furthermore, as Friuli has become the epicenter of the ‘orange wine’ (i.e. skin-fermented white) movement, current fashion doesn’t necessarily favor the style of today’s wine: varietally pure, steel-fermented-and-aged white wine with an emphasis on bright fruit and mineral expression. This is the style Friuli originally became famous for, and the style I first encountered when I was first getting into Italian wine. I still prefer it, especially when it’s as well-executed as this 2016 from Simon di Brazzan, whose wines only recently made their debut in the US. Daniele Drius’ impressive lineup includes skin-macerated and “fresh” whites alike, but the standout for me was this fragrant, focused Friulano—and not merely for sentimental reasons. Called “Blanc di Simon,” it is my kind of Friulano—mineral, textured, electric—and the kind of Friulano I’d throw on the table next to top examples of Spanish Albariño, Alsatian Pinot Gris/Blanc, and Austrian Grüner Veltliner and feel confident it would more than hold its own. It’s a fresh style that’s also substantial and serious—very deserving of a spot in your rotation!
Daniele Drius is a young vintner based in the village of Brazzano di Cormons, right in the epicenter of Friulian white wine country along the region’s eastern border with Slovenia. He inherited a small farm from his grandfather, which included vineyards and some wine production, but over the past 10 years he’s been re-planting vines and implementing organic and biodynamic practices in the process. His vineyards and winery are situated right around where the Collio and Isonzo del Friuli DOC appellations meet, with soils comprised primarily of ponka (a sandstone-marl mixture) along with more ‘alluvial’ gravel and clay. The Cormons area is regarded as Friuli’s greatest white wine terroir, situated in foothills in the shadow of the Julian Alps—effectively equidistant from the Julian Alps and the Adriatic Sea. This push-pull of mountain- and sea-borne air is the key to the region’s success with white wines: Vines are refreshed every evening, which lengthens the growing season to heighten aromatics and preserve acidity, but there’s also enough warmth and sun to deliver ripeness and depth.
Long known as ‘Tocai Friulano’—which led many researchers to believe that it was the Furmint grape of Hungary’s Tokaji region—Friulano is a distant relative of Sauvignon Blanc known as Sauvignonasse, or Sauvignon Vert (‘green’ Sauvignon). Its name was ‘officially’ changed by the EU in 2008, in a decree that gave Hungary sole use of the word “Tocai” on any labels. And while there are occasions when some Friulano wines resemble Sauvignon Blanc in style, it is only in the subtlest of ways and is rather rare. The best Friulanos are not overtly ‘green,’ either in color (they typically have more of a silvery cast) or in flavor (there’s much less, if none, of the pyrazine/herbal influence that characterizes Sauvignon Blanc). Friulano is typically more richly textured and lower in acidity than Sauvignon Blanc as well.
The Friulano for the ’16 “Blanc di Simon” was harvested at the end of September and fermented at controlled temperature in stainless steel tanks, where it remained for about six months to age on its lees. In the glass, it’s a shiny straw-gold with silver and a touch of copper at the rim, with aromas of dried apricot, white nectarine, acacia flowers, a hint of white pepper and wet slate. Medium-bodied, leaning toward medium-plus, its weight and persistence on the palate owes to ripe and balanced fruit, not oak (of which there is none). There’s a great back-and-forth of fruit/florals and crushed-stone minerality on the palate, and the wine is nicely rounded in texture while remaining fresh and lively (the quality of the acidity is pleasing but not piercing). When in Friuli, this is precisely the style of wine you’re poured to complement the sweet/salty goodness of the local Prosciutto di San Daniele, and I see no need to re-invent the wheel here. Pull the cork on this bottle and serve it at 45-50 degrees with the attached recipe, and yes, do not be afraid to lay a few bottles down: This is not a 20-year white (although Friulano can indeed age, as some upcoming offers here will demonstrate), but 5-7 years of graceful evolution is well within its reach. This is an exciting newcomer and I urge you to check it out!
