Tastes like cherry soda. Are you sure it’s the same wine? I was flabbergasted. My dear friend, an avid contributor to Vivino, had just panned the wine I thought was absolutely gorgeous. The next time we met up for dinner, it was her turn to be completely floored. Are you sure this is the same wine?
It was the same Collavini “Ruan” Rosso Friuli. “Rich aromas of red berry compote and yeasty bread over white ground pepper and green herb. Fresh, crunchy. Ripe, round tannins.” My friend finally agreed with my tasting notes. At the restaurant, where she had gone to, the wine had sadly been a victim of the wrong-temperature syndrome. It was served like a full-bodied red wine, my friend had lamented. But I had done exactly the opposite, serving the wine chilled (in a wineglass with a generous bowl), just as the winemaker’s notes had advised.
Made from Refosco and Pignolo, red grape varieties indigenous to Friuli, Ruan can catch the unsuspecting by surprise, especially by its pétillance, the slightly sparkling quality that gave the palate a jolt of freshness at the first sip. After my experience with Ruan, I just had to get acquainted with the rest of the Collavini wines in the portfolio of iPhor Trading Inc., the exclusive importer and distributor of Collavini in the Philippines. Broy, “T” Friulano, Turian, Pucino, Schiopettino, Villa Canlungo, Ribolla Gialla Spumante—each time I tasted them, I came away marveling at how beautifully they were made. When the opportunity came to meet a representative from the winery, I jumped at the chance.
I recognized Luigi Collavini, sales director from the video made available to me about a year ago by iPhor owners Atty. Gale Atienza and Adriano Stefanutti. (I still show the video at my wine training sessions.) This time Gale and Adriano made sure I met the man over dinner at iTrulli, their elegant restaurant-bar-boutique, tucked among the brilliant design shops at the LRI Building in Makati City.
Spot on, I thought of the Baccala’ alla Triestina, baked codfish with anchovies and potatoes, with the Collavini “Broy” 2014, a blend of Friulano, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc. Adriano had done the pairing, but Collavini let the wines do the talking. We began with the Ribolla Gialla Spumante, then the “T” Friulano Collio 2015 with the leeks and Montasio gratin. The “Pucino” Refosco 2013 came with the platter of Montasio cheese and cold cuts—speck di Sauris and prosciutto di San Daniele. Interestingly, the Ruan 2014 was paired with dessert, a regional Friulian cake with apples and dry fruits. The pairing was an outstanding example of “what grow together, go together.” I thought the wines had remarkable fragrance, structure and vibrancy.
Refosco, Friulano, Ribolla Gialla are grape varieties indigenous to the Friuli-Venezia-Giulia region. The Collavini family has been making wine from these grapes since 1896. The winery is rooted in its traditional farming and winemaking traditions which have been wedded with technological innovation in the cellar. For the award-winning “Broy,” for example, the Friulano and Chardonnay grapes are partially raisinated in the drying room, and the Sauvignon Blanc is pressed separately after brief skin contact. With the Ribolla Gialla grape, Collavini makes an outstanding sparkling wine with their own “metodo Collavini,” which includes the refermentation of the wine in horizontal pressure tanks, extended maturation on the lees and additional time (up to eight months) in the bottle.
It takes over three years to make a bottle of the Ribolla Gialla Brut, Luigi explained. We put a part of ourselves and Friuli in every bottle that we produce, he added. But Adriano Stefanutti, himself a proud Friulano, said it all: you taste Friuli in every bottle.