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Home , Bora (wind), Italian wine, Terrano (grape), Vineyard, Viticulture

This far-f lung section of Friuli- Venezia Giulia is home to three leading who are creating some of ’s best white . Their annual reveals how they overcome the challenging terrain to make it.

LaCucinaItalianaMag.com • 57 Edi Kante stands in his , perched on the dry, rocky hills that overlook the Gulf of . He scoops up a handful of red and lets it sift through his fingers. “Terra rossa is the blood of a Carsolino,” he When I first tasted vitovska and says. The term is the local name for this coveted, rust- learned about this group of winemakers, I was determined to go there and work colored , and a Carsolino is a resident of Carso, their harvest. this tiny region in the far southeastern reaches of Italy’s Friuli-Venezia Giulia region. “It is worth gold to I stop at Kante’s for a crash course in harvesting. He meets me in me, because there is so little of it.” the driveway dressed in his usual dapper Carso is made up of a cluster of villages and style, with fashionable red pants, a blue balanced atop a plateau that juts dramatically from the gingham shirt and his signature thick- framed designer glasses. . Its name is the Italian word for karst, a “You have arrived for the best harvest limestone landmass that has eroded over millennia and in 10 years,” he says, extending his hand. become laced with runnels and underground grottoes. “Each is an expression of the light that a experiences throughout The hardscrabble vineyards here are scratched out of the year and quantifies day by day … unforgiving rock. Sturdy stone houses that methods to produce distinctive Wine is the concentration of sun, and dot the region are roofed in stone shingles wines that cannily reflect their personalities. in 2011, the light was spectacular. The to protect against the mighty bora , These character-intense bottles are rapidly better the light, the better the wine.” We which can blow off the Adriatic at more becoming some of the best in the country. walk into one of his vineyards, which than 120 miles per hour, lashing vineyards Carso is known for such as will be harvested in the coming days. and stripping their . Unforgiving, pinot bianco, and the indigenous The hillside is bathed in nearly palpable, maybe, but the unique and terrain red , a local variety of , honey-colored light. define the area’s wines. The iron-rich but but it’s the vitovska grape that reigns here. “The quality of light in Carso is better rocky, porous soil, and nearby sea that It’s the pride of the region, one the people than in almost any other region in Italy,” ushers in warm breezes, impart a distinct will tell you best reflects their , Sangiorgi says. “In Italy, it is hard to find minerality and pronounced aromatics to and it grows only in Carso on both sides a place where the light hits the , the area’s that are unlike any other of the border. Marked by its signature bunches of grapes and the land like it does in Italy. golden hue, and potent aromatics of fig in other areas in . For example, if A half hour north of Trieste, Italy’s and wild herbs balanced by razor-sharp you listen to some producers from easternmost city, Carso straddles the border acidity, vitovska thrives here and is, in fact, or Rheinpfalz or even in , they of . The boundary is so permeable a product of the . explain that the inclination of the sun’s and has shifted so many times throughout Kante is the father of Carso wine, and rays impacts the aromas and perfumes of history that the street and village signs are the first winemaker from the region to gain the wine more than anything else.” It’s not written in Slovenian and Italian. If you any sort of international recognition for by chance that Carso makes such aromatic haven’t heard of Carso or its wines, you’re his endeavors. He, along with Benjamin wines, whether they be terrano, vitovska or not alone. It remains a mystery to many Zidarich and Sandi Skerk, are the veritable even . . But you’ve probably heard of the triumvirate of Carso winemakers. “They Kante shows me how to clip the ripe region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, which is represent three generations of winemaking bunches of grapes, and it’s straightforward also home to better-known wines from the in Carso, even if they are close in age,” and simple. Just snip the bunch at the Collio and Colli Orientali del Friuli regions says Sandro Sangiorgi, a widely respected stem, pull off any dried or rotten grapes that lie to the northwest of Carso. writer and educator, as well and leaves, and drop it in one of the red While names such as Livio Felluga, as the editor of the gastronomic journal, collection containers laid out that are Livon and Gravner have put Friuli on the Porthos, who has written about Carso. called cassette. map, insiders are keeping their eyes on “When producers spend time together, After my tutorial, we go into his cellar. Carso, where a small group of independent inevitably a regional character of their Kante was the first winemaker to invest and creative winemakers are harnessing the wines emerges, as well as the personalities so extensively in Carso. He spent several challenging terrain and employing natural of individual producers.” years in the 1990s blasting out his ›››

58 • november 2012 p Photogra GUTTER CREDIT h B y C redit L a C ucina I ta liana M ag.co m

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B From left: Carso straddles Italy’s border with Slovenia, and signs in the area are written in Italian and Slovenian; harvesting vitovska in Kante’s Korance vineyard; grapes fermenting in ; Zidarich grapes in his cellar.

cellar from the solid limestone bedrock. the same elegant restraint that marks When we leave the cellar, Kante He set the standard for cellars here, and his demeanor. “Kante recognized the points to the vineyards and says, “Il an imposing one it is. At 60 feet deep, it potential of Carso, something that others Carso è terra senza terra.” Carso is land could double for the Bat Cave. Utilitarian had a difficult time imagining,” Sangiorgi without land, which I take to mean that in construction, its circular shape steers says, adding that Kante’s approach part of the winemaker’s job is to nurture airflow, and it has three levels, one for leans on the side of reserved. “[His] the terrain. He explains that to the each stage of the winemaking process. winemaking style is based on control ... vineyards, he had to physically cart in On the top level, Kante ferments and [and a] technical enological .” soil. With nothing but hard limestone finishes each wine. On the second level, For one of his top-tier wines, Little Blue to cling to, the bora winds sweep away which he keeps at 59˚, he ages wine in Selezione, he blends , and the topsoil, which has to be hauled in barrels. After bottling, wines go to the with terrano. Kante from the sinkholes and gullies where it’s lowest level, where they’re stored at 54˚. also has had success with chardonnay, deposited, often miles away. Looking at Some say Kante is the most traditional which seems like a counterintuitive choice the vineyards that claw the rocky terrain, of the triumvirate. But tradition is relative for the tough terrain, since it’s a notoriously it seems as if the are the ones in Italy, with a younger generation of delicate grape. But his vineyards turn anchoring the soil to the land, and that winemakers fast turning to natural out a splendid rendition of the , they grow out of a tentative marriage winemaking, a loose term for an approach proving that going against the grain can between the transitory dirt and the that employs as little intervention as go a long way when one’s intuition is enduring stone. possible on the part of the winemaker, in strong. In addition, his pinot bianco is essence letting nature take its course. It’s unlike your average pinot bianco. It’s The next day I’m up with the sun to one of the philosophies that guides the marked by heightened notes of pear and meet Benjamin Zidarich in his vineyards majority of winemaking in Carso, and a full body balanced by the characteristic for my first day of harvest. I walk the while Zidarich and Skerk fall into this Carso acidity, but with a touch of salinity short distance to his winery from my category, Kante isn’t quite as entrenched blown in from the nearby Adriatic. Kante agriturismo in the heart of the tiny village in it. He believes the winemaker’s charge does, however, take a natural approach of Prepotto. is to coax the grape into the bottle, and as to winemaking in some areas: in his I find Zidarich near the entrance to one of the few winemakers in the region vineyards, he avoids , and in the his cellar, where he’s preparing vats for the to plant such a range of international cellar, he refrains from adding sulfur to day’s harvest, and we walk to the vineyard varietals, his wines are characterized by stabilize his wines. to meet up with the other workers. We’ll

60 • november 2012 be harvesting his prized Prulke vineyard, from age 16 to what be 70, casually limestone cistern with intricate carvings which Zidarich replanted in 1988 with milling about. All the workers are from the of vineyards guards the entrance. vitovska, sauvingon blanc and malvasia. area, either from Prepotto, or just across Zidarich is the sturdy stonemason to When he this vineyard, all the the border in Slovenia, and they’ve been Kante’s precise sartorial presence. He’s grapes go into a single blend. working with Zidarich for years. solidly built, with the well-fed vitality of “Once upon a time, winemakers in Cheerful strains of banter in Slovenian one who knows how to enjoy life, and a Carso used to make one and and Italian flit through the rows of grapes hint of mischievousness in his eyes. one with the grapes that they as they fill empty cassette at a steady but Zidarich studied under Kante, and had,” Zidarich says. “This field blend recalls leisurely pace, with the calm, precise his mentor’s influence, while apparent, that tradition. The grapes are harvested by movements of seasoned pros. I take a hasn’t eclipsed his own style. “The wines hand, placed in the same vat and allowed cue from the others and don’t rush. I fall they make are quite different, but both to ferment.” His Prulke wine is one of his into a steady rhythm. There is something zero in on displaying, first and foremost, more complex. It can be a bit closed when meditative about the process. Snip. Clean the area where their wines come from,” it’s young, but seems to integrate over time the bunch, drop into the cassette, repeat. Weitzenhoffer says. with a hint of salinity and grassiness balanced After three hours in the vineyards, I’m Zidarich’s cellar is impressive; grandiose, by dried apricot. He also aims for ageability, thankful when we break for lunch and head even. He’s carved out a labyrinthine space, a unique of Carso white wines. “I to the shade of the that ring the small connecting several deep caverns beneath his really believe that, as a sort of new category vineyard. Zidarich’s wife unpacks food winery with soaring bridges and catwalks, of wine, the Zidarich wines will show the and bottles of wine from the back of their and carved pillars. If Kante’s cellar could ability to age for 25, 30 or 50 years,” says station wagon. People open cold bottles be the Bat Cave, Zidarich’s evokes a Zidarich’s importer David Weitzenhoffer, of vitovska, and pass plates of penne with drawing by M.C. Escher. But, he says, head of A.I. Selections, based in pork ragù and yellow tomatoes. There’s a “I didn’t build a large cellar in order to City, N.Y. “It has the same kind of stuffing salad of field greens with hardboiled eggs, make a lot of wine. The design is based as a great chenin, white Hermitage or and plump purple beans with chunks of on aesthetics, tradition, functionality, even , for that matter.” crusty bread and local hard cheese. After 45 but above all naturalness. It was designed I expect there to be a flurry of anxious minutes, we regroup and lay out the plan to have a low environmental impact. For activity at the vineyard, with workers for the second half of the day. example, the various levels allow me to rushing about at a fevered pace, but there After another hour in the vineyard, employ gravity to move wine from one are only a handful of men and women, Zidarich takes me to his cellar. A large floor to another. And the cool air›››

LaCucinaItalianaMag.com • 61 62 • november 2012 from below chills the cellar so that I don’t But he departs from Kante in the length I find him by the front of his winery have to use electricity to do so.” of time he leaves his white wines on the hosing down his destemmer machine. Winemaking, when broken down to skin during fermentation. In this regard, I’m the first to arrive, so we walk through its rudimentary process, is simple. Pick the the three winemakers are divided down the vineyard we’ll be harvesting as he grapes. Remove stems with a mechanical generational lines, with Kante giving his tells me how he abandoned a career as an destemmer or, less commonly, by hand, white wines virtually no skin contact before engineer to take over the family business and pour the grapes into open vats. pressing, Zidarich roughly two weeks in 2000. “I tried various professions, but Fermentation begins when yeast consumes and Skerk several months. While Kante making wine is the one I most identify in the grapes and produces carbon is more surgical, aiming for a laser-like with,” he says. “I rediscovered my origins dioxide and ethanol. Most conventional wine, Zidarich takes a broad-shouldered and deep tie with the land, Carso, the winemakers will add selected inoculated approach, trusting that his wines can place where I was born and raised.” yeast. But the Carso winemakers, as with handle, and in fact benefit from, a rougher His first move was to replant the any committed natural or traditional (though no less skilled) technique. vines and convert to natural . winemaker, do not add a yeast strain to “Zidarich is a producer who has taken The old vines were trained on cement ferment the grapes. They rely on “native” the best of Kante and has the ability to trellises, and he felt the natural approach yeasts, which exist naturally on the grapes absorb or learn from other winemakers,” would bring the land and vineyards and in the cellars. Sangiorgi says. “He has incredible back into balance. As we walk through Zidarich’s larger-than-life cellar is also vineyards, probably the best in Carso in his vineyards, he says that he has had filled with gargantuan wooden barrels terms of quality … If someone doesn’t success with malvasia, pinot grigio and called botti, his preferred vessel for aging. know Carso, Zidarich’s wines are the other varietals, all of which are important “All of my wines are fermented and aged most representative of the region, and to him, but vitovska is the heart of his in wood,” he says. “I prefer to work with will make you fall in love with the area.” operation. “[It’s] the daughter of our wood because it breathes.” After an initial land,” he says. He plucks a grape and fermentation of about two weeks, the Sandi Skerk’s winery is just down shows me how to check for content grapes are pressed and returned to the botti the road from Zidarich’s estate, and is the with a spectrometer, a telescope-like tool before being moved to smaller barrels to smallest and newest of the three. While that indicates when the grapes are ripe age deeper in the cellar, a method borrowed Kante and Zidarich are outspoken in their and ready to be harvested. from the old houses in , pursuits, Skerk’s winemaking approach is Skerk put his experience and a practice Kante and Skerk also follow. quiet and meditative. to work when he built his cellar. He

64 • november 2012 From left: Breaking the “cap” on an open vat of fermenting grapes; Skerk’s blend of vitovska, malvasia, tocai and moscato straight from the ; pouring a glass of Kante’s pinot bianco; Zidarich’s cellar, with the large barrels called botti; a 1993 bottle of Kante’s age-worthy ; barrels in Kante’s cellar; wine fermenting in Skerk’s cellar, with one of his modified vats on the right.

devised a plan to cut the rock with If you don’t extract them from the skins, He goes to another barrel that contains diamond studded cable. With you are going to have to add them some a blend that will go into his Ograde. He the help of a friend, they threaded it other way.” dips a long, syringe-like tube called a wine through grottoes under the site of the He also doesn’t hesitate to experiment thief and pulls out a sample. It’s a 2010 winery and sliced a clean square out of with blends, and one of his best wines, field blend of vitovska and malvasia, with the bedrock. The simplicity of the cellar Ograde, is a combination of two separate small amounts of tocai and moscato. The belies the complexity of this operation, blends, one of malvasia and vitovska, and wine is cloudy from the long but its sharp corners and precise cuts echo the other of sauvignon blanc and pinot and bursts with bright citrus and honey his winemaking style. He is methodical grigio. He also applies his engineering flavors, and a youthful agrodolce bite. It and succinct with his wines, letting the prowess to his vats, which he modified gives a crisp pucker and its perfume of grapes speak for themselves. This reflects with a metal top that allows more heat apple blossoms explodes out of the glass. in the lightness of his wines, which are to escape than the unmodified vat, so he As we prepare to go, I realize that expressive without being domineering. can easily regulate the temperature of the while a day during harvest starts in the “[Skerk] recognizes that he is privileged fermenting wine. If fermenting wine gets vineyards, it ends in the cellar. The harvest to have grown up in and live in Carso,” too hot, the fermentation process will be isn’t just about picking grapes—it’s the Sangiorgi says. “In fact, his wines are interrupted and ruin the wine. that leads up to it, the suspense happy. They are full of life … he may very Skerk hands me a glass poured from in waiting for the grapes to mature, then well have the most long-term perspective barrels holding last year’s harvest. His getting the grapes into the cellar, where on what Carso wines will be in the future.” wines spend at least one year in the they truly come alive. Perhaps more than Unlike Kante, he lets his grapes stay barrels before being transferred to steel any other wine region I’ve visited, these on the skins for months at a time, fully containers, where they settle before being steps are at the mercy of the terrain in extracting their flavors and colors. He bottled. Tasting young wine straight from Carso. Ask too much about maceration leaves them in vats until January or the barrel is one of my favorite ways of time and technique, and Zidarich in February, an unusually long time for experiencing it, because it draws a clear particular will say you’re not asking the white wines, but a growing trend among picture of how wine evolves over time. I right questions. natural winemakers. ask him what he looks for when he tastes “I do what I do so [you] can ask about “Maceration is a necessary step in wine from the barrel. He takes a sip. “I the terroir,” he’ll say. “So [you] can learn natural winemaking,” he says. “We use look for the elegance and character of the where we come from, and why our land it to extract all the qualities in the skins. grape varietal,” he says. is special.” 

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