Sweet oregano: Wine surprise in Friuli

I met Marco Sara at the Terroir Vino event in Genoa, was impressed by his three dessert wines, and was eager to visit him and his family at their place in Friuli.  I headed up there this past Wednesday and toured his vineyards, saw something of the very pretty area north of Udine, and met Sandra and Pietro, Marco's wife and two-year-old son.  I also met Marco's cousin, his mother, Sandra's mother -- it's that kind of place.

Sandra and Marco at a cafe in San Daniele, prosciuttoville.  Young as they are, they've been together forever and seem like an old married couple.  A happy one, amazingly enough.

I also tasted and retasted the wines.  I'll publish some detailed notes before too long, but I thought I'd treat you to a few pictures and overview comments first.

Marco currently has about 5 hectares, 12-13 acres, of land.  Some of it, including a plot that he believes has huge potential for his sweet wines, is being prepared for planting in the spring.  His holdings, piecemeal like so many in Italy, acquired plot by plot, are between about 125 and 300 metres in elevation.  The soils tend to be argillous-calcareous, the better to hold the moisture on very steep hillsides facing SE to SW as well as provide a basic minerality that is needed in a good dessert wine.

Marco told that this Friuli is the dampest part of Italy.  I can well believe that, since the oppressive humidity we experienced in his area was on the level of New York in August.  In this environment, where the day may start clear but clouds up by afternoon or evening, the noble rot (botrytis) can take hold in especially muggy seasons, like this one.  The best sweet wines of Friuli do indeed benefit from noble rot, including some of Marco's.  Savorgnano, the little town where he lives, is at one of the northernmost wine-producing zones in the region.  A bit farther north and all you see are cornfields -- Friuli is as corny as Kansas. 

Marco at new planting area.  The terraces have been there since the 1950s.  He uses native grape varieties -- Tocai Friulano, Picolit and Verduzzo.  He is adding Riesling to enhance the Tocai's acidity in future vintages.

The humid weather this year has created some problems for the vines.  Still, Sara uses only copper and sulfur, in as small amounts as feasible, to fight mold.  Anti-hail netting is essential here. The one good thing about having scattered plots of land is that a hail storm won't wipe you out; the hail is usually too localized to damage an entire zone.

Marco, who speaks the local dialect more readily than he speaks Italian, has named all three of his wines in Friulian.  In ascending levels of quality and price, and descending production quantities, they are

Verduz, Piculit and Mufis dal Sis.  (Italian: Verduzzo, Picolit and Muffe del Sei, which means "noble rot of '06.")  While I am saving the detailed tasting notes for another post, I can tell you that the Piculit in particular has a distinctive herbal-aromatic note that I was hard-pressed to place until Marco said, "Oregano." 

That was it.  I asked him if there was wild oregano growing in/near the vineyards, since he allows "green mulch" to protect and nourish the vines.  "No, it doesn't grow around here, and don't ask me why or how the wines sometimes have such a strong aroma of oregano.  I don't know!"

Photo: Small stream in wooded area will promote development of botrytis in Marco's new vineyard.

But it's interesting and very appealing, and none of the wines is either too heavy or too sweet.  All of which hints at why Marco's vino dolce has become something of a cult favorite among serious wine fans from Veneto and Lombardia, especially those from Milan.  He sells a great deal of his wine from the cantina, which is in the young family's basement, as well as in the restaurants of the area.  "Yes," Marco says in agreement, "these are really wines for restaurants."

More later.

The hustle and bustle of downtown Spilimbergo