Wine Blogging Wednesday #41: Friuli whites hosted by Fork & Bottle

Note, there are lots of posts already online for this month’s Wine Blogging Wednesday, and we see that they feature neat maps and contextual information and other tidbits gleaned from participants’ diligent reading of Vino Italiano’s opening chapter on Friuli. Our entry for WBW #41, despite our New Year’s resolution that we’d kick things up a notch, is more of the tasting notes variety. Next month, we promise!

That being said, we kind of went off the reservation for Wine Blogging Wednesday #41, ignoring our gracious hosts Jack and Joanne’s (of Fork and Bottle) advice to steer clear of inexpensive Friulian white wines. We picked up a few bargains instead, at K&L Wine Merchants in Hollywood. What can we say? When faced with a choice between three bottles that total $35 or one bottle for the same, we’ll take quantity. After all, we’re skeptical of the notion that cost equates quality (though apparently studies report that cost is closely related to enjoyment). So, did our rebellion prove fruitful (or should we say “Friuliful”) or not? Let’s see!

First up, was the 2006 Blason Pinot Grigio, Friuli Isonzo DOC (K&L, $8.99). This is a simple wine. The nose on this is almost tropical, in a “Dole pineapple in light syrup” kind of way. There’s not much else going. Moving on to the palate, all flavors get initially squelched by the intense (verging on unpleasant) acidity. The lingering aftertaste is on the acrid end of the spectrum. We realize that Blason is a respected winery and judging from Dr. Deb’s experience, we might have been better off selecting the Blason Tocai Friulano for $9.99. At this point, the Fork & Bottle plea to buy an $18+ bottle seems founded.

Next up we popped open the 2005 Ermacora Verduzzo Friulano, Colli Orientali Del Friuli DOC. Another bargain from K&L, this is a direct import and doesn’t appear to be available at any other retailer in the US (and apparently no longer even at K&L, as a quick check of the website shows no evidence of the cuvée).

The label proclaims it’s a “Dry White Wine”. But it’s not at all dry. Turns out, this is a dessert wine! We wonder if the label mishap had something to do with the close-out price of $9.99, down from the original of $15.99. This wine is certainly not unpleasant, but we find ourselves in the position of being grossly under-prepared for experiencing a sweetie. The taste was of honeycomb and simple syrup, and was totally inappropriate for our dinner of Autostrada sandwiches from Nancy Silverton’s Sandwich Book . While we put a cork in this for later consumption, we admit we never made it back to the wine as intended, with a more appropriate pairing of strong cheese. Our quick judgment: for under $10, this isn’t a total disappointment. But, alas, it is no longer available.

Finally, we thought we’d try something from one of the authors of Vino Italiano, the Wine Book Club’s current selection. Okay, so we almost bought the $35 Bastianich “Vespa” Bianco (which is marked $30 online, but we swear it was more in the store. Whattup???). But being our cheap-ass selves, we settled on the 2006 Bastianich Tocai Friulano, Colli Orientalli del Friuli DOC for $14.95 (again, from K&L).

This was the clear winner of the evening. The Bastianich Tocai is a very well balanced wine with good fruit and acidity. It’s sharp, but not overly tingly or citric acidy like the Blason. It’s got ample fruit, but more along the lines of melon with a hint of Asian pear thrown in. It’s got considerably less mineral than a Chablis, but it has that same cool climate thing going on (and when we say “thing” we mean we can’t articulate what we really want to say!). In any case, this is a very solid effort, and seems like a great value considering the warning that most Friuli wines under $18 would be dogs. This wine? Not a dog. Not a life-changing wine, but definitely not a woofer. Apparently it’s all hand-picked fruit, so there’s evidence that care was taken in the making of this (unlike the Blason, which veered more toward mass-produced plonk).

So that was our mini-tasting for WBW #41.

But, wait! Perennial teacher’s pet syndrome has forced us to seek extra credit…

Over the weekend we dined at Osteria Mozza, and…get this! They have a couple pages solid of Friulian wines on their all Italian and lengthy wine list (you can download the list here to see how impressive it is)! Okay, so it’s owned in part by Joe Bastianich (along with Nancy Silverton and Mario Batali), and many of his wines are among the featured. But they have many additional options, including a few by the quartino (250ml carafe). This seemed too good an opportunity for us to pass up, and we hope we get some sort of Brownie points for trying an extra wine in the house of Bastianich himself (though we selected another producer).

Brimming with excitement, we ordered a 2006 Traminer from Dorigo, from the Colli Orientali del Friuli DOC. It ran us $18 for the 250ml quartino, and that was enough for two of us to experience the wine. We can’t seem to locate the current vintage of this wine at any retail establishments, but a past vintage is offered for about $15 a bottle at one Oregon shop. Oh well. High mark-ups are typical of restaurants, and we’re not going to pick any nits on this front. We have to say that the opportunity to try another producer and another varietal from the region was worth the money.

We’re not sure how long the bottle had been open before we got our pour, and this is always the tricky thing when buying wine by the glass. Our experience of the Traminer gave us the aroma of faint pineapple (not in syrup, we should note) and not much else. In the mouth, one flavor dominated: Trident Bubble Gum, before they changed the flavor formula a few years back, and after having chewed on it for a few minutes past the advisable. Thinking about it almost made our jaws hurt.

The wine had plenty of acid at this point in its life cycle, though we have to assume that the fruit had dissipated since the bottle had been opened. And though the gum arabic element dominated, what the wine left us with was more of a petrol-slash-Listerine (also faded) aftertaste (we hesitate to use the term “finish” after a much heated Twitter discussion yesterday). We weren’t drinking the Dorigo Traminer with food, since we were at the bar waiting for our table, and maybe food would have enhanced our experience. We suspect the bottle had been open a tad too long, but it wasn’t so far past its sell-by date that it would have been worth complaining.

Our .250 batting average here isn’t going to deter us from trying Friulian wines in the future. But the next time we do, we think we’ll heed Jack and Joanne’s advice and do a little less bargain hunting. Vespa Bianco, here we come!

Thanks as always go out to Lenn Thompson for creating WBW several years back.

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