The modern era of Friulian white wine has been defined in large part by wines that are neither modern nor especially white. Lately, Friuli’s most famous exports have been “orange” wines, many of them produced using truly ancient methods. And of all the “white” grape varieties in the Friulian tool kit, the one most readily associated with orange wine is Ribolla Gialla. There are various explanations for this, none of which matter today because this Ribolla Gialla from I Clivi is not an orange wine. It’s a white wine from the era before the current era, when Friulian white wine was defined by crisp, unoaked, high-acid varietal bottlings fermented in temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks. Wines that were crafted to preserve as much primary fruit character as possible, along with a transparent mineral core. 

And Ribolla Gialla, regardless of its popularity with orange wine aficionados, is perfectly suited to this more crisp, clear, “conventional” white wine style (maybe better suited to it, IMHO). I Clivi is a masterful producer of finely etched whites, with a focus on Ribolla Gialla and Friuli’s other most celebrated native, Friulano. Today’s ’19 wouldn’t be at all out of place in Chablis, or Austria’s Wachau, and in fact it behaves a little like a Chardonnay/Grüner Veltliner mashup. It is vivid, mouthwatering, and, as I Clivi has proved through periodic releases of back-vintage library bottlings, capable of aging. No offense to the orange versions, but this flaxen beauty is my strong preference.

Overall, the white wines of Friuli-Venezia Giulia have been demanding entry into the world’s elite ranks for a while now, only to be denied entry by gatekeepers with a badly outdated image of Italian white wine. Well, it’s time they were let in, and I’d put I Clivi right at the front of the line. With vineyards in both the Collio and Colli Orientali del Friuli DOCs, right on Italy’s border with Slovenia, I Clivi sits between the Carnic Alps and Adriatic Sea, where wide diurnal temperature shifts lengthen the growing season and preserve vital acidity. The estate was founded by Ferdinando Zanusso in the mid-1990s after he purchased an old, two-hectare vineyard in the town of Brazzano di Cormons. Zanusso grew up in nearby Treviso, and his father made wine, but he spent some 30 years working in West Africa before returning home to start his own wine journey. He was quickly followed by his son, Mario, who continues to run the property today on a resolutely artisanal scale: Their 12 hectares of vineyards are Certified Organic and dry-farmed (i.e. non-irrigated), and they eschew the use of oak when aging their whites. 

With Ribolla Gialla, which is grown almost exclusively in the Collio and Friuli Colli Orientali growing zones (both DOCs hug Friuli’s hilly border with Slovenia), racy acidity is the calling card—so much so that many producers feel comfortable aging the wines in oak. But, while there undoubtedly strong similarities between Ribolla Gialla and cooler-climate Chardonnay, Ribolla is marginally more delicate in terms of structure and really shines best when it’s presented without makeup. Most of the I Clivi vines are quite old (60-80 years), so there is no need for any adornments: the fruit is beautiful on its own, and the wine offers up a nice evocation of the region’s marl and sandstone soils.

Crisp, floral, and mouthwatering is the story here, in a nutshell—this ’19 is a wine that is meant to be drunk young, ideally with some thin slices of Prosciutto di San Daniele (one of Friuli’s other unique exports). As I said above, this wine impressed us as one that could surely age 3-5 years at a minimum, but frankly, I don’t know why anyone would wait. In the glass, it’s a pale yellow-gold moving to a silvery rim, and you can’t help but detect a lot of yellow (gialla) fruit right out of the gate: yellow apple and lemon chiefly, along with white flowers, green melon, citrus pith, almond skin, and wet stones. It is medium bodied and loaded with racy acidity (I Clivi also crafts a Brut Nature sparkler from Ribolla), ready to whet appetites as an apéritif or to pair with first-course salads. You might consider prosciutto with melon a little “played out” but it sure would be a delicious choice for this wine. When it’s right, it’s right! Enjoy!