Collio Friulano La Castellada 2019

Collio Friulano La Castellada 2019 Natural/Organic skin maceration, serious structured wine from Oslavia in Collio close to the Slovenian border. Made very very much in the traditional Oslavioa style: textured, savoury and built more like a red wine than a conventional fresh friulano. 45 year old vines where planted on the classic ponca soils of Collio eocene marl/sandstone. Grapes are hand harvested, destemmed and crushed, then undergo 4-5 days natural yeast fermentation on the skins before being transferred to barrique where fermentation finishes. There is 11 months maturation in barrique, then 12 months in stainless steel and at least 12 months in the bottle before release

Upon tasting, despite the skin contact i wouldn’t say this was an aggressively “orange wine” more of a super classy gastronomic friulano with controlled skin maceration that has a wonderful mouth feel and texture. Deeply golden in colour ripe peach and aromatic herbs on the nose. On the palate those come through with subtle creamy notes, white pepper, almond and vibrant minerality. An exceptional unique expression of Friulano, not for quaffing. The type of wine you’d maybe see on a tasting menu at a top restaurant. Given “4 Viti” from Associazione Italiana Sommelier (it’s highest accolade).

The Castellada winery was born in 1954 when Giuseppe Bensa returned home from Switzerland to his native Oslavia on the Friulian/Slovenian border and purchased a small piece of land upon which he planted vines and opened an 'Osteria' where he could sell the products from his farm.

Thirty years later in 1985 his children started bottling their few thousand bottles of wine at the estate rather than selling in bulk and 'La Castellada', (a name from derived from an Oslavian hillside) winery was born.

Since 2009, Giuseppe's grand children Matteo and Stefano have been running the 10 hectare estate and growing the reputation of the wines.  The vineyards were planted in two phases; about half are now over 60 years old and the rest about 30 years.  The complex marl and sandstone soils with a very stony top layer push roots deep in the strata making for more complex wines.  The free draining nature of the soils and natural processes in the vineyards give very limited yields of approximately 25-30 hectolitres per hectare, meaning concentrated grapes and intense wines.  The vines lie at approx 180 metres above sea level and are further influenced by the fresh breezes coming down from the Julian Alpes which moderate the very hot summer temperatures and keep the acidity in the grapes.

As with tradition in the area, most of the white wines undergo a period of skin maceration/fermentation with indigenous yeasts, the length of which varies depending on the variety.  They are then generally aged in a combination of old botti, tonneaux and barriques for two years and a further year in steel tank and bottle before release.   Only the Pinot Grigio made in the Rosato style and the Friulano undergo a significant skin maceration of two weeks.  The other white wines spend just 4 days on the skins adding texture and flavour but not too much tannin and rendering them very much full bodied white wines rather than orange wines.

I discovered these wines in a small Italian restaurant in Mallorca of all places.  The entire wine list was made up of incredible natural producers from Friuli and Piemonte including many of the greats like Radikon, Gravner, Princic and so on.  The Castellada stood out, slightly lesser known but classically styled skin contact wines with intensity, richness and good acidity.  If you like powerful white for hearty foods, these bottles are for you.