 Today we're going to explore one of my favorite regions, Friuli Venizia Giulia Italy. Stay tuned in this video. Hello, welcome back to Exotic Wine Travel, the show that helps you drink adventurously so you can expand your palate and expand your mind. I am your host, Matthew Horky, coming to you with another tasting video. This time we're going to dig into four wines of a region that I love very much, Friuli Venizia Giulia Italy. For those of you that don't know, Friuli, as they call it for sure, is on the northeastern corner of Italy, right on the border with Slovenia. So the culture is very, very unique. It's kind of where western Europe means central Europe and then also some eastern European influences. Fantastic wines. Also, there are swaths of watery, cheap, Pinot Grigio's, but we're going to talk about more higher quality wines and those wines exist and are grown on the eastern part of Friuli Venizia Giulia, especially Colio and Colio Orientali, which we have some of those wines here today. You know, I've been going to the region for the last couple years. Unfortunately, this year we haven't been able to get out and explore and I'm just so blown away at such a versatile region. If you want rich white wines, barrel fermented white wines or fresh white wines, or you want big structured reds, sweet wines, and also it's a hotbed for orange wines. So there's a lot to offer. You know, it's one of my favorite regions in the world. I think it's right up there with Santa Barbara County in America, Chianti, Clasco, Piamonte, that kind of stuff. Without further ado, let's get into some of the wines, shall we? The first one I'm really excited about. This is Massacan Sauvignon Blanc, or it's just Sauvignon, it's labeled for short, 2018. Massacan is actually a project in Napa Valley. Started by the white head winemaker of Larkmy, Dan Petrovsky. We met him at the 2018 premiere in Napa Valley, but he makes a few whites at Ramco de Liemes. It's in Frioli Venetia Giulia. That's where they bottle them in the cellar. Now, a lot of you will groan when I'm starting to talk about Sauvignon, but don't groan about it. I'll tell you why. Frioli Venetia Giulia is one of the premier regions for Sauvignon Blanc, in my opinion, and especially ones that are a little bit bigger, ripe or barrel fermented, which this is, this was fermented in oak and aged for 12 months. You know, when I think of Sauvignon Blanc, some of my favorite regions are obviously the Loire, Styria, and South Styria, and Austria, Frioli Venetia Giulia, Otto Auge, Italy, and some parts of the Central Coast in California. Let's get into the wine, shall we? You know, these Sauvignon Blancs in Frioli tend to be a little bit bigger, a little bit more riper, but they're not so huge and fat. Like the example, sometimes you get on a Napa. Let's get into this. I'm really excited to try this. So from the first sniff, it's kind of, it's not, don't expect a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, where it's so explosive, so much gooseberry, so much grass. This is a little bit more under control, although there are some grassy notes, some herbaceous notes to it. Kind of a subtle lemon zest, if I squeeze the lemon in there. White peach, just maybe a little bit of kiwi fruit. It's not overly big and explosive. It doesn't smell like it's too rich. Let's get this to go. Boom. For a barrel fermented white, oak integration here is perfect. Snappy acidity, really, really snappy. They're kind of the citrus type sensations on the back end. I'm really liking this. It's actually acts more like a wine that doesn't see oak, which I'm quite surprised. For me, right now this wine is showing kind of like in the 89 to 90 point type range, off to retaste and retaste through. Maybe I'll go back to it after I taste the other whites. But a good showing by Massacam. For the first start, I really like it. I'm cheating a little bit with the next wine. The next wine is not from Friuli Venetia Giulia. It's from Vipava in Slovenia. But here's why I'm not cheating. The Vipava Valley is right on the border of Friuli Venetia Giulia. You know, the town of Gorica, basically in Italy and Slovenia, the country split the town. There's this valley that kind of leads in the central eastern Europe, Vipava Valley. It's incredibly beautiful on there a couple of times a year. This is a producer I have no idea about. I've never tasted the wines before. Hedele. This is the Chardonnay Goce 2016. Also barrel fermented Chardonnay. This part of Slovenia is actually known for orange wines, macerated wines. And this, this winemaker actually consults in Friuli. But this wine is not macerated. It's just a classic barrel fermented Chardonnay. Let's check this out here. So don't think a big butter bomb, a big oaky Chardonnay. Oak is integrated very, very well here. A little bit of grassy notes. Get kind of green guava melon. This is kind of shy and mineral. This is more on the mineral side than fruit. The mineral stuff sticks out a lot here. There's not tons of fruit here. It's more mineraly. The nose is quite shy. But it's the mouth feel that really gets me on this wine. This is really lovely. Let me give it another shot here. Finest length. I think I'm 90 points on this. I want to go back because we got two whites. I want to go back to the Sauvignon and compare a little bit here. Okay. The Sauvignon blocks a little bit snappier. I think fans that want a little bit more of a city, that's definitely somewhere to go for. I think I'm about 89 on the Massacan. I'm going to go 90 on the Hedale. I think it's a really nice Chardonnay. I just opened this. So I'd like to see how it develops with time. And I'll taste through and take my tasting notes as we move on. Let's move on to one of the reds, which I'm excited about. Now, Frioli Venizia Giulia is a region that really built its name on white wines. Clean, crisp white wines, barrel fermented white wines as well. But actually 40% of the production region is red wine. They have a lot of unique grapes like Skiopatino, Pinnolo, Tazalangi, Merlot also does very well as does Cabernet Franc. This is a new project. This is the Nero Magis 2014. This is the first vintage of this wine. I think the owner owns a design company. Hence the cool little label here. This is Merlot in Pinnolo. A grape that I'm super fond of. It's a grape that's pretty tannic. It needs a lot of bottle aging to show its best. So I'm assuming they blended it here with the Merlot to soften it up again. It is aged in an oak. Let's give this a sniff. Very exciting wine. I'm first very exciting wine. The Merlot, the Merlot in this part of the world. It varies. You see producers that can make it big, fruity, rich structure. And then wines that can be kind of earthy, showing more mushroom notes, more fall leaves type flavors, stuff that you usually associate with Pinnoir. So I'm liking this. Think dried cherry. Only like almost like fruit rolls. Like dried fruit rolls, stuff like dried cherry. Pepper, fall leaves. Oh, this is super intriguing and really complex nose. This wine for me is really awesome. Not a big fruity red wine. So wine for fans of the old were a lot more subtle flavors, kind of more earthy notes. Tannins are pretty big, but they're not overly powerful. Wow. Wow. In a time like today, where a lot of people can make pretty good red wines, put them in the barrel, make them fruity, structured, big. This is kind of a throwback to an old school style of red wine making. Kind of more medium-bodied. I was expecting it to be massive with the Pinnolo. Get some leather notes, some savory notes. Wow. And for 2014 was a terrible year in this part of the world. I'm pretty huge. I'm really high on this, as you can see. I'm as of right now, 92 points on this baby. I think it is a fantastic red. And I'm really excited to taste more of that tonight. Oh, tangy. Really good wine. My kind of wine. Oh, let's get started. I'm sad, but let's move on here. We have the Philippon. This is the Ramandolo 2017. Now, for those of you who don't know, Ramandolo, it's one of the great sweet wines classed along with piquelet of this region, made of the grape verduzzo. This producer was so fond of the wines of Saterna, especially Chateau de Iquium. De Iquium. And makes this verduzzo with botrytis, with some noble rot, then ages it in a barrel for two years. I'm excited to taste this. You know, I love sweet wines. I feel like I could write a book. I feel like I could write a book on the world's great sweet wines. They're kind of out of fashion now, and I'm going to tell you why. Think about in the past, hundreds of years ago, when there wasn't a lot of processed sugar around. There wasn't a lot of sweet stuff besides fruit. If you drink a beverage that's super sweet, plus gets you a little bit tipsy, there's no wonder that so many of the world's great sweet wines were called the Wine of Kings, the King of Wines. These wines have kind of fallen out of fashion, take a lot of work to make, and I'm a big fan of them. I think that it's really the most magical transformation of wine grape into wine, are the world's great sweet wines. Nice little golden amber color. Orange, kind of like orange peely. Let's give this a go. So definitely, right away, sweet apricots, dried peaches, fall leaves. And you know what, a little bit of, it's a white wine, but it's got a little bit of cherry notes, which doesn't surprise me. You know, Verduzzo, when it's made of orange wine can have some more red fruit type flavors. Now, here's the key. I like acidity when it comes to my sweet wines. This guy, this has got a really rich, mouth-coding, complex feel. There is acidity, but it's not super sharp, like you might get in Togekai or some of the great sweet rieslings in Germany. But it is lovely. There's complexity and spice here, which I like very much. Very complex for such a young sweet wine. 2017, you can put this away for a long time. I think that it will continue to develop. This is something that I want on a cool fall day with some hot apple pie. I think that's a really, really good pairing. That's something that I would like to see a lot. Really nice sweet wine. The cool thing about this is, since Romandolo is not such a well-known, super sought-after appalachian wine, you probably can get this. I don't know what the price is, but you can probably get this at a great price. If you want to try to experience some great sweet wines to get some of those noble route flavors, goodbye. I'm going to sell 91 points on this. I think it's a delicious, delicious wine. So, guys and gals, check out the wines of this part of the world, Frioli, Venizia, Giulia, and then to a greater extent across the border of Slovenia. There's some really exciting wines made there. I know a lot of people, sometimes when they think about Frioli, they think of the watery, cheap Pinot Grigio, there's a part of Prosecco that's in Frioli, Venizia, Giulia. It's also home to some of Italy's most exciting wines and food, by the way, and that's the reason I love the region so much. So, check out the wines of Frioli, Venizia, Giulia. I think I'll put a link to these wines in the description box. I'm going to be doing a tasting article, so I'm going to sit down and I'm going to taste these a little bit more in depth. You have to wait and check that out. So, I hope you remember to keep drinking adventurously, expand that palate, expand that mind, and I will see you at the next episode. Hello, thanks for watching. Hey, you made it to the end. Make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel, click the bell so you know when new videos are out. If you like content like this, check out our Patreon page where you get some behind-the-scenes exclusive content. Thanks for watching. Cheers.