White Flower Farm:I Love Italian Wine and Food - The Friuli-Venezia Giuli Region

If you are looking for a good Italian wine and food, consider the Friuli-Venezia Giulia in Northern Italy. You can find a bargain, and I hope you have fun on this fact-filled wine education tour.Friuli-Venezia Giulia is a mountainous area tucked away in the northeast corner of Italy, bordering Austria and Slovenia. Experts believe that Friuli-Venezia Giuli was first inhabited twenty thousand years ago. Like most regions of Italy, which has belonged to many nations in recent years. Unlike most regions of Italy, remains multicultural, an exceptional mixture of Italian, Austrian and Slavic. To make this article easier to read, we will replace the full name of the region for the first part, Friuli. The total population is less than 1.2 million Friuli. While it is home to a wide variety of agricultural products, most farmers are not rich. Farms tend to be small and much of the land is not fertile, suitable only for grazing, and grapes. Unfortunately, the Adriatic Sea is in poor condition and fishing is in decline. However, a variety of seafood available. Friuli's best-known food is San Daniele prosciutto, prosciutto age in sea salt for over a year. Gourmet debate whether this ham or its cousin prosciutto di Parma from the Emilia-Romagna region in northwest Italy is the best ham in the center of the world.Friuli 's administration is Trieste, which only became part of Italy in 1954. This city was once the main port of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. As in Vienna, Austria, Trieste is full of cafes. It is also home to the famous International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Physics. Friuli devotes about one hundred fifty thousand acres to grapevines, it ranks 14 among the 20 Italian regions. Its total annual wine production is about 27 million gallons, representing a 13 th position. Approximately 48% of its wine production is red or rosé (only a little rosé), leaving 52% for white. The region produces 9 DOC wines. DOC stands for Denominazione di Origine control, which can be translated as Denomination of Controlled Origin, presumably a high quality wine and a DOCG white dessert wine, Ramandolo. The G in DOCG means Garantita, but in reality there is no guarantee that such wines are truly superior. Over 60% of Friuli wine carries the DOC or DOCG designation. Friuli is home to nearly four dozen grape varieties of major and minor, about half white and half network. Widely grown international white grape varieties include Pinot Grigio, often called Pinot Gris outside of Italy, Pinot Bianco, often called Pinot Blanc outside of Italy, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc. The best known varieties are strictly Italian white Tocai Friulano and Verduzzo Fruilano, exemplified in the DOCG wine, grown Ramandolo.Widely international red grape varieties include Merlot, grown in Friuli for more than one hundred years, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon. The best known strictly Italian red variety is Refosco. Candidate Friuli grape varietal named Tazzelenghe rarer, which means tongue cutter in the local dialect. Although I have never tried any wines on the basis of this grape, I can guess that not delicate. Before you review the Friuli wine and cheese that we were lucky enough to purchase at a local wine store and a local Italian food store, here are some suggestions of what to eat with indigenous wines when touring this beautiful region. Start with ripieno di Cioccolata Cjalzons With e Spinaci, chocolate and spinach pasta stuffed with smoked Ricotta.Then alla Triestina Capesante treat, grilled scallops and oysters with watercress. For dessert, indulge yourself with Strucolo di ricotta, cottage cheese strudel. If you're like me, you think of Austria or Hungary, when he hears the word Strudel.OUR WINE REVIEW POLICY While have communicated with over a thousand Italian wine producers and merchants to help prepare these articles, our policy is clear. All wines that we taste and review are purchased at retail price.Wine Reviewed Pighin Pinot Grigio 2005 Friuli Grave 12.5% ​​alcohol about $ 13. 50I "We will start by quoting the marketing materials." Toast, white flowers and mineral on the nose is, this light-bodied white has to do with taste, enthusiasm and refreshing citrus flavors. Some notes of pit fruit, but mostly built at the height of the seafood. Try friends and grilled prawns drizzled with lemon juice. "The first time I tasted this wine with sesame seed covered filo dough stuffed with hamburger meat and accompanied by zucchini with tomato sauce. That was a pleasant acidity and fruit flavors providing lemon and other citrus. I liked it with a label chocolate cake strudel which intensified the acidity of wine. do not think any Friuli residents would have called the Napoleon cake, but this review is about the wine, and not the couple next meal was cake.My with pasta wheat with spicy meat sauce. Wine stepped to the plate and handled the spice very well. It was nice and round. I ended up with this meal of strawberries season, in whose presence the wine became almost fillet of sole poached in onions sweet.With, some rice, okra and tomato sauce, wine became more acidic and rounder. It was very refreshing. It was a sweet companion, acid to fresh pomegranates. It took a good acidity, with nuts and chocolate candy candy.Montasio is a cooked, full fat, semi-hard cheese made from cow's milk and aged for several months. It has a strong smell and strong taste and pasty. The Pinot Grigio was not overcome by such powerful cheese. Strictly speaking, Asiago cheese is not from the Friuli region, but its neighbors Trentino-Alto Adige and Veneto. Again, the wine changed in character to match this soft cheese.This was not a great wine, but go well with everything. The most likely buy it again.