Browse Tag

venezia giulia

Radikon job

[grapes]Radikon 2002 Venezia Giulia Ribolla Gialla (Friuli-Venezia Giulia) – While it’s never entirely clear what sort of wine one is going to get when one removes the tiny, Virginia Slims-sized cork from a bottle of Radikon, anticipation of the unexpected more than makes up for the lack of predictability. That said, any expectations one might have for this bottle are pretty much detonated at first sniff. And no, I do not mean that negatively. This wine is as explosive as the beverage can get…not in the goopy, thermonuclear fruit device fashion so popular among certain subsets, but in its mushrooming billows of complexity and evolving structure. Deep bronze in color and in sheathing, then wrestling free of its jacketing with lava flows of slow-baked stone fruit (leaning towards the tropical…let’s say papaya, more for the fun of naming an actual fruit than from any commitment to organoleptic accuracy), then pulsing in gravitic undulations of aromatic expansion and structural contraction. To a certain extent, most wines made in this fashion are “red wines,” but this is redder than most, and the deep, autumnal aromas that dance around the perimeter lavishly Burgundian. Honestly, this is breathtaking, a sure-fire cure for vinous ennui, and sufficient reason all by itself to make wine a part of one’s life. (4/09)

Here’s to my sweet tokaj

Radikon 2005 Venezia Giulia “Jakot” (barrel sample) (Friuli-Venezia Giulia) – Fresh and light. Makrut lime poured over rocks. Simpler than the other wines, with a straightforward flavor. Already seems fairly complete. Long. (10/07)

Radikon 2006 Venezia Giulia “Jakot” (barrel sample) (Friuli-Venezia Giulia) – Pine, fresh bread, and papaya. Well-balanced and long. Perhaps a hint of reduction as well, which seems unlikely for this wine; perhaps I’m misidentifying something. (10/07)

Radikon 2003 Venezia Giulia “Jakot” (Friuli-Venezia Giulia) – Explosively aromatic, though precisely what’s in the shrapnel is difficult to pin down. Dried fruit, perhaps. Lush, fun, and fulsome. (10/07)

Orange pesto

Radikon 2003 Venezia Giuli Pignolo (barrel sample) (Friuli-Venezia Giulia) – Very tannic, with dusty, dark berries. Needs a lot of time, but given the gravitational core of concentration within, it could be a stunner. Or it could fall apart under the weight of its structure. It’s difficult to say at this stage. (10/07)

Radikon 2004 Venezia Giuli Pignolo (barrel sample) (Friuli-Venezia Giulia) – Meat with a hint of char, herbs, and softer tannins than the 2003. Lighter and more angular. Somewhere in between this and the 2003 would seem to be the ideal range for this grape’s inherent qualities, but then again these wines aren’t (to my knowledge) being released, so who knows? (10/07)

Radilot

Radikon 2004 Venezia Giulia Merlot (barrel sample) (Friuli-Venezia Giulia) – Fig, bubblegum, and some volatile acidity. There’s agreement on this latter point, and so we try again from a different container. (10/07)

Radikon 2004 Venezia Giulia Merlot (barrel sample) (Friuli-Venezia Giulia) – Meatier and fuller than the first sample, with no significant volatile acidity. (10/07)

Radikon 2003 Venezia Giuli Merlot (barrel sample) (Friuli-Venezia Giulia) – Perfumed. Black cherry, blueberry, nut skins. Big tannin, yes (in that, it’s reflective of its year), but there’s a vintage-specific sort of balance to the wine. Long. Very good. (10/07)

Cole Oslavje

Radikon 1997 Venezia Giulia “Oslavje Riserva Ivana” (Friuli-Venezia Giulia) – Smoked, sun-baked minerals (seriously) and mirabelle plum. Youthful and so, so long. Piercing, and yet prettily sweet (not, I think, from residual sugar). Brilliant. (10/07)

Radikon 2002 Venezia Giulia “Oslavje” (Friuli-Venezia Giulia) – Spicy and full-bodied, lush with cream , but with a contrapuntal midpalate bite. Strong and complex. Tastes more vibrant, somehow, than it does in the U.S….not that this result is much of a surprise, given the fidgety vulnerability of its chemistry, which can seem to be (but is not) belied by its brash iconoclasm. (10/07)

Radikon 2005 Venezia Giulia “Oslavje” (barrel sample) (Friuli-Venezia Giulia) – Tannic (big surprise), sauvignon-dominated, and full of fruity tropicality. (10/07)

Radikon 2005 Venezia Giulia “Oslavje” (barrel sample) (Friuli-Venezia Giulia) – Take two, from a different barrel. And, of course, completely different. Very floral, round, and full-bodied, with peaches. Also, dried honey laden with beeswax (which is also a textural impression). Huge, but complete. Rather impressive. (10/07)

Radikon 2006 Venezia Giulia “Oslavje” (barrel sample) (Friuli-Venezia Giulia) – Grapefruit. Big – actually, almost fat – with solidity and length. There’s a significant vinyl element (both aromatic and textural) that I don’t quite understand, though. (10/07)

Gialla de Laurentiis

Radikon 2001 Venezia Giulia Ribolla Gialla (Friuli-Venezia Giulia) – A bit shy (do these wines even have a closed period?), with a comparatively silky texture and a softer finish than has been the norm in other vintages. Lovely and balanced, but reticent. (10/07)

Radikon 2007 Venezia Giulia Ribolla Gialla (barrel sample) (Friuli-Venezia Giulia) – Tight and yet as beautifully weird as expected; no reason not to jump in with both Dadaist feet and fight through the cobwebs. Tannin is the initial impression, followed by apricot and cream, then a sweet, brioche-like character. Very long and dense, but identifiable components are mere teases at the moment. The wine’s still hard, though its future character can be glimpsed. (10/07)

Radikon 2006 Venezia Giulia Ribolla Gialla (barrel sample) (Friuli-Venezia Giulia) – Matchstick, chamomile, minerals, and the light bitterness of over-steeped tea leaves. (10/07)

Radikon 2005 Venezia Giulia Ribolla Gialla (barrel sample) (Friuli-Venezia Giulia) – Fruit salad heavy on the pineapple, with tannin and spiky acidity. Citrusy and linear. Needs to settle down. (10/07)

Radikon 2004 Venezia Giulia Ribolla Gialla (barrel sample) (Friuli-Venezia Giulia) – Golden. Apples and citrus, with clean tannin. (10/07)

The devolution will not be televised

[ribolla gialla]Thinking about the wines of Radikon, in both the context of the “orange wine” cohort and the greater world of regional and worldwide styles, I’m drawn to a musical analogy. Often, wines of this type are described as being akin to improvisational jazz. For me, that’s a valid way to think about the experience of tasting such wines, which can rarely be pinned down to just one or two coherent ideas or forms, but I think the analogy is insufficient as a description of the way these wines are made. Instead, I’m reminded of Miles Davis’ pre-hiatus electric period, for several reasons. First, this was music that improvised from a theme, but the theme was not always clear (or even revealed to) the listener, depending on the way recordings were edited. The start and finish of a given take was fairly arbitrary, and the actual form and flow of the music being created often had little to do with the finished version that was committed to vinyl; what the listener heard was a snapshot, different in each iteration, and never encompassing the entirety of perspectives on the theme. So it often seems with these wines, which offer windows into their varietal composition and their terroir, but never offer the full panorama in a single bottle. Each year’s version is a different view of the same landscape, as I think it must inevitably be with the most natural of wines.

…continued here.

Vodofone

Vodopivec 2004 Venezia Giulia Vitovska (Friuli-Venezia Giulia) – Even more orange than most of its “orange wine” cohort. But it still brings the insanity. Tannic as hell. Cloudy. Plus: citrus rinds, green olives, very old almonds, a touch of ammoniated walnut. And is that lard that I smell? Incredibly dense, complex…and, as usual, it’s impossible to get a real handle on a wine like this. It just defies every expectation, even when one knows what to expect. (3/09)

Free Radikon

Radikon 2002 Venezia Venezia Giuli “Oslavje” (Friuli-Venezia Giulia) – Controversial…and, of course, halfway to opaque with unfiltered goodness. There’s a light sweetness (which may instead be deceptively ripe fruit, or even something else; I’ve given up technical analysis on wines of this type) that’s quickly overwhelmed by a strong shower of pine needles – both the aroma and the tactile sensation – that almost, but don’t quite, edge into Pine-Sol territory. Spiced and candied oranges intrude somewhere in the mix as well, though their precise points of entry and departure remain elusive. I kind of love it, but not everyone at the table does. (8/07)

In dreams

Jermann 2005 Venezia Giulia “Were Dreams…” (Friuli-Venezia Giulia) – Fig and peach. Nice acidity. Pure, sunny, clean, and short. It’s good, but it’s not all that interesting. (2/08)