VINFORUM, Autor, ARNE RONOLD MW

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In 2020, Dutch wine journalist Paul Balke published the book North Adriatic, in which he argues that the wine regions of Friuli in northeastern Italy, in the western part of Slovenia and the northwestern part of Croatia have so much in common historically, culturally, in terms of soil and grape that they should be considered a large wine region, with sub-regions in the three aforementioned countries. Vinforum's editor was on a press trip to the region in the first week of July this year, led by the aforementioned Paul Balke.

Friuli, Slovenia and Croatia were part of Austria-Hungary, which disintegrated after the First World War. In Friuli, the easternmost and hilly areas are the most interesting in terms of quality. The westernmost appellations Annia, Aquileia, Grave, Latisana and the southernmost part of the Isonzo are all located on flat land and produce relatively ordinary quality wines, while the hilly and well-drained areas Friuli Colli Orientali, Collio Goriziano (or just Collio), Carso and the northernmost part of the Isonzo (Rive Alte) are qualitatively stronger. In Slovenia, we are talking about Goriska Brda (or just Brda), Kras (which is right next to the Italian Carso), Vipavska Dolina (Vipava Valley) and the Slovenian part of Istria, while in Croatia it is about Istria and Kvarner (with the sub-areas Kastav and Krk).
Common to the entire eastern part of the North Adriatic wine regions is a dominance of a type of soil called ponca, which consists of marl (calcareous clay) and sandstone, often with a distinct reddish hue due to a high content of iron oxide. Carso and Kras, however, stand out with a soil called karst, which consists of pure limestone with a thin layer of iron-containing clay on top, also with a distinct red color.

COLLIO & BRDA
Collio Goriziano encompasses 1300 ha of vineyards in the far east of Friuli, while the neighboring region Goriska Brda covers 1878 ha in the far west of Slovenia. Before 1947, these were considered one area, and the names Collio and Brda mean hills in both languages. Around 1870, when the area was part of Austria-Hungary, a group of Austrian experts concluded that wines from the area were the best in the Habsburg Empire. Collio is perhaps the best known of the DOCs in Friuli, and the area is home to the pioneers of Friuli's rise in the 1980s such as Mario Schiopetto, Josko Gravner, Silvio Jermann and Villa Russiz, who all helped put Friuli on the international wine map. And the wines from Collio have not deteriorated. However, it still seems that the area has stagnated, and compared to Friuli Colli Orientali, which focuses heavily on local grape varieties, it seems as if the producers in Collio still focus most on international varieties. We tasted the occasional ribolla gialla and friulano on the trip, but the wines generally did not impress as much as the wines from Friuli Colli Orientali. Best wine was Collio Bianco 2022 from Edi Keber based on malvasia, friulano and ribolla gialla. Collio is also home to two of Italy's most prominent orange wine producers: Gravner and Radikon. A good buy from Collio in Norway today is Russiz Superiore Ribolla Gialla 2023 from Marco Felluga (NOK 299.90). Among the wines from Goriska Brda, it was the wines made from rebula, as the grape variety is called here, that impressed the most, but the impression was also here that the focus was mostly on international varieties. Silvio Jermann has started a project here that seems promising. There are currently only four wines from Brda available in Norway