Collio: The Best Italian White Wine Region?
Love wine? Curious which is the best Italian white wine region?
If you adore the cuisine, culture, and wine of Italy, Collio DOC lives up to its boast as one of the best Italian white wine regions.
The local consortium calls it the #enjoycollioexperience. The expectation is that visitors enjoy the wine as well as its culture.
This DOC (Denomination of Controlled Origin) wine region falls in the area referred to as ‘Friuli Venezia Giulia.’ It sits on the northern point of the Adriatic Sea. The name encompasses Friuli with Venezia Giulia and alludes to the mix of Italian, Slovenian and German languages spoken in the region. And the cuisine as well.
This mix of cultures is just one reason why Collio DOC thrives as one of the best Italian white wine regions. The Collio DOC area includes about 1500 hectares of specialized hillside vineyards.
History of Collio DOC
Recently the Collio DOC consortium hosted a webinar to showcase some of its best Italian white wines. Matteo Belloto delivered an excellent webinar, introducing guests to the history of the region and its indigenous grape varieties.
Joining Mr. Belloto was Mitja Sirk, a winemaker, sommelier, and the son of the founders of the Michelin rated La Subida restaurant. The restaurant is famous for its list of the best Italian white wine.
The restaurant prides itself on the warm hospitality, delicious food, and quality regional wine. Growing up in the restaurant and ultimately developing its wine list, Mitja enjoys helping guests unfamiliar with Collio’s fine white wine pair the wine with food.
Quality: Why Collio DOC is One of the Best Italian White Wine Regions
The word “Collio” means hillside. This region is an arc of upward and downward slopes set amidst that area once known as the County of Gorizia.
Behind this are the summits of the Julian Alps that protect the zone from the cold northern winds, while the Adriatic Sea mitigates temperatures.
Most wine students and wine collectors understand that the best Italian white wine comes from the hillside. This encompasses many factors, such as drainage (so the roots of the vine can dig deep). The angle of the slope also benefits exposure of the vines to the sun.
But what makes Collio DOC one of the best Italian white wine regions is the unique stratified marl and sandstone terrain called both “Ponca” and “Flysch.”
This is a very poor soil, which in the world of wine is a very good thing. Italian vignerons even have an axiom for it. In English, the words translate to “If you can make me poor, I’ll make you rich.”
A key reason “poor soil” is so important is that it forces the vine roots to dig deep into the earth for water and nutrition. This strengthens the vines and makes for better fruit. Just another reason Collio DOC makes the best Italian white wine.
Best Italian White Wines: Maturation
Few wineries stress the importance of proper maturation of their wine. Because of financial concerns as well as storage issues, most wineries need to ship their wine as soon as possible. Collio producers try to mature their wine on premises as long as possible, and urge customers to “hold” the wine instead of drinking it upon release.
Collio wine, as both Matteo and Mitja stressed, is made to improve with age. While it’s not typical for most white wines to improve with 5 – 10 years of bottle age, this is very true of Collio wines even at modest price points. The men also spoke about their desire to create an aging cellar where producers could store their wine with the understanding they could not remove it for several years.
Collio Grape Varieties
The Grape Varieties of Collio DOC
Malvasia: This grape has been present for many centuries in the Collio region, where it has found its ideal habitat. It is characterized by a light straw-yellow color with hints of green and a clear scent that reminds one of exotic fruit and white pepper. To the palate it is dry yet fresh, lively and full-bodied. The wine is excellent as an aperitif, but it also goes well with vegetable soups, risottos and fish.
Ribolla Gialla: In the seminar, Matteo and Mitja detect “crunchy green apple fruit” in this wine. It is the most ancient of the indigenous grape varieties (dating to 1300), of which signs of centuries-old vines are still found in the micro-zone of Oslavia.
Color of this wine is lively straw-yellow with an intense aroma. The wine has vibrant acidity. If aged in wood or macerated, Ribolla Gialla acquires a smooth taste with more intense notes. It goes best with delicate seafood dishes.
Friulano: Mitja calls this his “dearest” grape variety and wishes it would have more fame. It is one of the most famous and best Italian white wine varieties in his mind. Until 2007 was called Tocai Friulano but the name was changed due to trademark issues (Tokaji from Hungary).
The wine is a straw-yellow color with hints of green. It has a delicate fresh scent of vegetables and almonds. Its flavor is full-bodied and harmonious.
In the Collio region Mitja says it is often served as an aperitif, but ideally the wine accompanies seafood dishes and grilled white meats. It is particularly suited to accompany the local prosciutto cured ham.
Picolit: Described as “noble and rare,” this is one of the best Italian white wines because of its aroma of acacia honey and warm hay.
Collio Bianco: Matteo and Mitja describe this as true essence and soul of the Collio DOC and therefore, one of the best Italian white wines.
It is an ambitious project of the Preservation Consortium, is the Collio Bianco: the result of blending various grapes, it contains all the characteristics of its land and the winemakers.
Pinot Grigio: Mitja and Matteo say that this variety, now considered an international rather than indigenous Italian grape, finds its perfect expression in the Collio region.
Cuisine in the Collio Region
The gastronomic traditions of the Collio reflect the cultural and historical influences that the territory has experienced over the course of the centuries. The food remains yet another reason why Collio DOC makes the best Italian white wine.
Collio is a meeting place of recipes coming from the Latin and Slavic peoples, from Friulians, Austrians, Germans and, in the space of a few miles the variety of the food assumes different specific results.
The cuisine is rustic and elegant at the same time, as well as seasonal, expressing all its international character. The typical dishes are made up prevalently of wild game: hare, roe deer and wild boar, prepared also in Hungarian and Austrian style.
Pork occupies an important place, both as a protagonist of starter dishes and of barbecues. Well known are also the boiled versions of various meats and ham baked in bread, served with horseradish.
Among first courses the most important are: home-made pasta cut in strips, served with wild game and roast sauces, semolina flour gnocchi and potatoes stuffed with plums and served with melted butter and cinnamon; vegetable soups, especially “Jota”, made with beans and sauerkraut and enhanced with pork.
Agricultural traditions have also handed down omelets flavored with asparagus, wild hop sprouts and other spontaneous herbs.
Other typical products of the area include: olive oil made in the Collio region of the historic Bianchera variety, ham from Cormons that is smoked using cherry and laurel wood. From the traditions of Mitteleuropean inspiration we have hot apple strudel, or those with pine nuts and raisins, fruit tarts, and the more famous Gorizian Gubana, the cuguluf, the Linzertorte.
I hope to visit Collio soon and experience the best Italian white wine!
