Within the wine scene of every known enclaves there are those few producers who, after having had a deserved success in advance of the times, continue to express themselves on levels of excellence to the point of having become, rightly, flag bearer of the enclave itself. This is the case of the Vie di Romans winery, founded in the late 80s by the Gallo family in the homonymous locality Via di Romans, in the municipality of Mariano del Friuli (Gorizia), 20 kilometers from the Slovenian border and as many from the Adriatic Sea.
As a matter of fact, the Gallo family has been involved in viticulture and wine production for almost a century, even if it will be only under the guidance of Gianfranco Gallo, from 1987, that it will be officially possible to talk about wines by Vie di Romans.
The production philosophy of this winery has remained roughly unchanged and is based on a maniacal knowledge of the different types of terroir that make up the 60 hectares of vineyard owned. As a matter of fact, even if the composition of the lands is always characterized by clay soils mixed with calcium carbonates, and by a rocky skeleton below, there are many variables that affect the final qualitative yield of the grapes.
In this regard, it is enough to remember how this area of Italy is hit at the same time by cold winds coming from the East (such as the famous Bora) and by warm winds coming from the sea through the Gulf of Trieste, and already the different vineyards positioning can make all the difference of the world in being influenced more or less.
Cold/ hot alternance, wet and rainy springs, temperate summers, and autumns alternating drought and rainfall, are the basis of this diversity of expressions that the winery wanted to make evident by adding on the labels the name of the vineyard of origin in addition to that of the wine.
This choice was accompanied by the constant modernization of cultivation techniques, with some constants such as high plant density, low yield per plant and the search for the best balance between bunches and exposed leaf surface.
Among the wines produced it would be almost impossible not to mention the flagships of the winery, Dut’Un, a blend in equal parts of Chardonnay and Sauvignon grapes grown respectively in the Vie di Romans and Vieris vineyards.
The two vineyards of about 30 years, planted at a density of 6000 vines per hectare, on the Rive Alte shelf, at 31 meters above sea level, are harvested between late August and early September, with a yield of less than a kilo per plant.
Once in the cellar, the grapes are destemmed and then left to macerate cold and clarify statically, always at cold temperature. After the alcoholic fermentation at a controlled temperature of 2-3 weeks, the wine ages 9 months on the lees, without malolactic fermentation, undergoing a natural clarification, before bottling. 21 months of rest in glass and the wine is ready for marketing.
The 2016 vintage is warm and enveloping since the intense golden color, with an evident consistency, corroborated by an alcohol content of 14.5% and with a rich and varied olfactory range that starts with notes of mango, ripe pineapple, dried apricot and nectarine, followed by notes of custard, fern, menthol and toasted hazelnut, with final echoes of white pepper, iodine and Mediterranean scrub.
Such an overflowing olfactory spectrum would lead us to think of a tiring and saturating sip… nothing could be more untrue! Of course, the sweetness of glyceric softness does not disppears by magic, but the balsamic and the savory/ iodine notes that decrease a lot the aggressivity integrating in a palate that flows, overall, with a simplicity hardly imaginable to the nose.
The retrolfactive return of yellow theft, menthol, cream and iodine are the right closing of this wine, which shows a post-swallowing persistence hardly believable.
RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
PRICE (€-€€€€€): €€
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