&xxdrsw kfflffird 'Even this ting fragment, CoIIi Orientali, is a dizzginglworld of its own'

EVERY TIME I head for , I come back in a daze. &Vlaat &'wc confusingly called Friulano, since the uninitiated Two sorts of daze, to be precise. There's the tend to assume this is a regional rather than intellectual daze, provoked by the stupendous &e*Na da**xrkimg name. Other whites are based on ordinary complications of grape variety and DOC Sauvignon tkis xxx*xx*&x Blanc, , Pinot Bianco and regulations. Then there's the sensual daze, aroused Pinot Grigio. The international bandwagon, would by the torrent of different aromas, flavours and Life without Rioja would that be? Not at all. The region had 'eight years of experiences which most localities here offer. be too serious: I can't Enlightenment' as part of Napoleon's 1805-1814 It is in Ita1y, perhaps, where wine most resembles think of a more smiling ICngdom of Italy; the Frenchifying included wlne life itself - so layered, intricate and mutable as to red wine. I recently grapes. They count as indigenous now. (The be comprehensively unknowable. relished the Seftorfo de unique , which takes on allusiveness Why? It's partly a question of landscape. The San Vi{eille, San Yiee*tE and grandeur with skin contact, is older still.) primary articulation of the country is north-south, 2O07 slngle-vineyard Then there are the dellcately sweet which meaning plentiful latitudinal differences. The po Rioja from the Eguren old ladies in historic Cividale might sip while va11ey aside, the whole of Italy forms a discussion family. Technically playing cards on mild autumn afternoons - based between mountains, hills and valleys, and that speaking, it has wonderful on indigenous (the sub-zonal Ramandolo ceaseless topographical dialectic constitutes the purity of fruit: poised DOCG is for Verduzzo alone) and Picolit (which ideal circumstance in which to generate difference plums and roasted enjoys a Colli Orientali de1 Friuli Picolit DOCG, in wine. The fact that Italy is an ancient library of currants. Emotionally, it occupying the same area as Colli Orientall DOC). grape varieties weaves in a tissue of further has the inner glow of a Can the reds be as complicated as this? More complications. Then there's history - wine Halloween pumpkin, so, if anything. and Cabernet thrive here; happens more or less everywhere here, and it has combined with the the best are fresh and appetising. I never tracked done for two dozen centuries or more, through the floating enchantment of a down wine from the rare Tazzelenghe variety. It,s comings and goings of peoples, armies, rulers, Chinese Iantern - the Refosco, Schioppettino and Pignolo, though, which refugees, colonisers and migrants, all ofthem smiling wine made us are really exciting. Schioppettino was all but bringing, hoarding and taking away their sensual smile. And relax. Red extinct - only 70 vines left - when it was rescued tastes and treasures. Thus the complexities have Rioja asks so little, and in the 1970s by Paolo and Dina Rapuzzi of Ronchi pullulated. Pity, don't blame, the poor legislators. gives so much. di Cialla, a tiny estate in a hidden valley towards By way of example, let me offer you one single the north of the Colli Orientali. It maLes a light, DOC: Colli Orientall. It has a full name, too - crunchy, zesty red (like a kind of northern Italian formerly Colli Orientall del Friuli, it is now Friuli Fronton) which now has its own Schioppettino di Colli Orientali. (Why the change? I never found Prepotto DOC within the Colli Orientall; indeed out.) On the national wine map, it,s a tiny the Cialla valley is now a single-property DOCG, fragment of vineyard wedged up against Slovenia, perhaps in gratitude for the salvage work. Refosco with Collio (also known as Collio Goriziano) to its (a variety with several distinct variants, notably south. Visit it, start asking questions, and you Refosco dal Peduncolo Rosso) is deeper here - quickly discover that even this tiny fragment is a fresh, engaging and vivacious, cascading with red dizzyingworld of its own. and black fruits, but with substantiat tannic Most of its wines are white - though support, too. And Pignolo, at least in the examples historically reds tended to dominate, because I tried, is deeper and more thunderous still. This until the end of World War I this part o1 variety, too, was snatched from the brink of Friuli was the 'sunny south' of the oblivion in another 1970s rescue mission - from a Austro-Hungarian Empire, rather single row of vines held by the Abbey of Rosazzo than being the cool north of a (the Clos Vougeot of Colli Orientali). The 2008 predominantly red-wine producing Pignolo from Viarte is one of the most dramatically nation called Italy. Whites based exciting red wines I have tried this year, while on what? Lots of varieties. Tocai Moschioni's 2007 Pignolo is so ferociously Iriulano is the most widely extractive as to make Madiran seem effete. Wow! planted, but in deference to My time is almost up, and I still haven,t to$ Tokaji that name is now you about the internal site differences within Colli outlawed. The variety is Orientali (a game of hilIs, of course), nor about Sauvignonasse (or Sauvignon how it differs from Collio, its significant Vert), but no one likes those neighbour. Inexhaustible Italy will always have names much, and in any case the stories for another day. ln wines based on this variety here have a balance, a complexity and a creamy class which eludes Sauvignonasse Andrew Jefford is a Oecanfer coniributins elsewhere. So it's now simpty editor. Read his Jeff*rd CIn MonelaSr'bl*g e called Friulano or - wr,{rt y. defonre t" c 0 m /j €f f0 {d