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The Northeast of Italy – Good Wines and More
Copyright Neil Duarte, Wine on the Web, March 2008
Most new aficionados of Italian wine are familiar with the offerings of Tuscany and Piedmont but only a few know the lesser known yet excellent
wines produced in Friuli and the Veneto.
Friuli, properly named Fruili-Venezia-Giulia, is the northeastern most portion of Italy. Its heritage is as much Austrian and Slovenian as Italian. For
the most part it borders Slovenia to the East. The wine road west of Gorizia, just north of Trieste, contains some of the most idyllic vineyards in Italy and winds around to the important wine town
of Cormons. When riding on the wine road, it seems that every space in the area is devoted to wine growing.
Map of Italian wine regions
Though Friuli produces a number of excellent white wines and is judged by some to
have the best Pinot Grigios in Italy, I believe that its best offering is called Tocai Friulano. Not to be confused with the Tocai wines produced in Hungary, Tocai Friulano
is a clean, crisp dry white that generally has a hint of spice and fruit taste. The fruit taste will vary slightly between producers, but the wine leaves a clean taste. Some
experts such as Joseph Bastianich consider it a distant relative of Sauvignon Blanc. This is a wine worth remembering and tasting whenever you find it. It is advertised as
the perfect wine to serve with prosciutto and I can vouch for that from personal experience.
Tocai Friulano grapes
Prosciutto di San Danielle (produced in a town of the same name in the western part of
Friuli and well worth a visit) is one of the most famous prosciuttos in Italy. However, if you are around Cormons you should try the local Prosciutto di Cormons along with a
bottle of Tocai Friulano. The Prosciutto di Cormons is drier and usually served in a bit thicker cut, but very tasty. An excellent restaurant at which to try this is La Subida (tel
39 0481 60531) located just outside Cormons. It is one of the best restaurants I have visited anywhere. The restaurant and its owners are warm and very hospitable, the
ambience is elegant but not pretentious and the food is fantastic.
Moving west from Friuli you come to the Veneto and more traffic. Though best known for its Valpolicella, Soave and Amarone from the eastern part of the Veneto, there are
several other wines from the Veneto worth noting. However, the increased appearance of Valpolicella Superiore Classico in the US is a welcome upgrade from some of the
inferior Valpolicellas seen over the past years.
For those who like a sparkling wine, Prosecco is an excellent choice either as an aperitif or even as a cocktail. My wife and I stayed in the Conegliano area north of
Treviso at the wine producing Agriturismo Demetra (www.agriturismo.com/demetra)
where Prosecco is produced along with two organic red wines. Though I generally do not like sparkling wines, I was pleasantly surprised by their Prosecco. Maurizio and
Bianca Bonotto, owners of the agriturismo, operate a small but first class winery without a fancy tasting room. In addition to their signature Prosecco, they produce an
organic Cabernet, a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc as well as an organic Merlot. Both of these red wines were very smooth and clean with no harsh
aftertaste. My initial impression of organic wines, based purely on their offering, is most positive.
In the future if you plan to visit the most popular tourist destination in the area, Venice, try to add enough time to your schedule to visit one or both of these areas. You will not
regret the effort.
Piedmont, A White Wine and Winery Worth Noting
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Last updated on April 30, 2008