Friulano is generally considered to be the most significant white wine grape in NE Italy. And no one can top the amazing renditions of this wine than those that occur along the Slovenian border north of Trieste.
Having been bestowed cuttings of friulano. many years ago, I set to work trying to emulate the best of these wines from the Collio. And while there are many to appreciate, the most inspiring to me was produced by Vitovska Vodopivec.
Inspired by his techniques, we destemmed whole berries off clusters, filled a 300L clay amphora with this must, let ambient yeasts on the skins do their thing and after fermentation was completed, buttoned up the amphorae & let the wine rest on the skins for 60 days (yes you read that correctly).
At this point the wine has a bit too much astringency for a white wine, but after 15-18 months in neutral oak barrel, it all comes together! Voila, we have a white wine which is truly a nectar of the gods.
This is literally one of the most exciting white wines that Cameron has produced. The biggest problem with it is that our 300L amphora only yields around 300 bottles!