Suburban Wino and friends- two amazing wines from the Tre Venezie

Hell Yes! part 1

Last Thursday night I happened to catch a tweet from my old Atlanta wine blogger friend Joe Herrig. He was having a late dinner at an Asian restaurant in Portland called Biwa and was opening a couple of very special wines from the Friuli Venezia Giulia and Veneto regions of Italy.

Settled in my hotel room for the night, the tweet offered quite a dilemma. The prior day’s pre-conference excursion, detailed in the lastpost, had been two hot days in the sun. Back in Portland on Thursday for the eve of the Wine Bloggers Conference, there was a tasting of Oregon wines at the hotel. After all this I was a little spent and happy to be calling it a night.

So after a little back and forth with Joe, and a little hemming and hawing with myself, I was dressed and walking out of the hotel lobby in search of a cab to Biwa. A short time later I was crashing Joe’s dinner with his wife Heather and several local friends from the Oregon wine community. A spot was warmly made for me and it wasn’t long before Joe so graciously opened up these two majestic wines.

First up was a 2005 Azienda Agricola Stanislao Radikon JakotVenezia Giulia IGT. The Radikon is 100% Tokaj Friuliano fermented with no inoculation on the skins in oak vats with frequent manual punch downs. It rests in oak casks for 36 months and is bottled without filtration, clarification or added sulfites. Winemaker Stanko Radikon is famous for these gold/orange tinged whites from Friuli, and for good reason, this was a transformational wine. Imagine the power and intensity of great Sauternes, but finishing completely dry.

The next was from the late legendary Veneto producer Giuseppe Quintarelli. The 1992Giuseppe Quintarelli Cà delMerlo Veneto IGT is from a single hilltop vineyard, made from the traditional red Valpolicella varietals Corvina, Molinara, Rondinella and Negrara. A portion of the grapes are late harvested and the wine is made through the ripasso method, with extended aging in large wood vessels. What stood out here to me was the electric juiciness of the fruit cutting the raisiny sweetness, along with beautiful savory depth and length. Beautiful indeed.

Biwa seemed like a cool late-night spot for dinner. It was fine company and amazing wine. Many thanks for Joe’s generosity and inspiration!

Click for tasting notes on these two wines.

Hell Yes! part 2