Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
but there is no consensus on the amount of air-
drying required and consequently little consis-
tency of style. Hence Picolit wines can range
from light and delicately sweet (rare nowadays)
to super thick and sweet (the unfortunate
majority). Unfortunately, that's not the wine's
only problem.
For a variety of reasons, there has always
been too much Picolit wine sold that wasn't
worth its high price, ultimately damaging the
wine's reputation. This is a real shame, for
Picolit is an ugly duckling meant to fl y like a
wild swan; it's potentially one of the world's best
sweet wines. I say
potentially
because there are a
number of obstacles on the road to reaching this
goal. First, it's virtually impossible to make
large quantities of wine from Picolit vines. Yet,
human nature being what it is, everybody tries.
Only a few estates produce up to four thousand
half bottles a year; and even La Roncaia, the big-
gest Picolit wine producer, does not exceed
annual productions of six thousand 375-millili-
ter bottles. Most other producers make far less
than a thousand half bottles a year. Given the
high prices the wine can fetch, it's not surpris-
ing that increasing volume has been a goal; and
since clonal selections haven't been the answer,
modifying the legal production guidelines has
been another strategy. New legislation was
passed in 2006 (modifi ed in 2010), turning
Picolit into Friuli Venezia Giulia's second
DOCG wine, decreeing that DOCG Picolit could
be made using a minimum of 85 percent Picolit.
Let me be blunt: the only reason for this
change is to allow more Picolit wine to be pro-
duced. Since the implementation of this legisla-
tion, I have been chagrined time and again in
tasting wines that have more in common with
Sauvignon Blanc or Chardonnay than true
Picolit, an utter travesty. Unless something is
done, this will inevitably lead to people shying
away from an expensive sweet wine that offers
neither unique redeeming features nor a sense
of place. This is something that they are only
too aware of in Chianti and many other Italian
DOCs and DOCGs, but I guess the failure to
learn from others' mistakes is a human trait.
Historically it was always a risk to buy Picolit
wines, because unscrupulous producers cut
them with copious amounts of Verduzzo and
other cheaper sweet wines (nevertheless selling
their artful “creations” at stellar Picolit prices).
The sad irony is that the recent DOCG legisla-
tion has effectively done little more than legal-
ize a practice that had always taken place.
There is another toxic by-product of the new
DOCG legislation: the elimination of subzones.
This is an utterly nonsensical move, as Picolit is
one of the few Italian native cultivars that has
been clearly associated over the centuries with
at least three
crus
of specifi c quality: Rosazzo (a
particularly warm microclimate); Rocca Ber-
narda (where the eponymous castle sits atop the
hill; art lovers and history buffs will know it was
designed by Giovanni da Udine, famous for the
Raphael rooms in the Vatican); and Cialla, a
much cooler microclimate, where Picolit pro-
duces a wine of a lightness of being that would
make Milan Kundera proud (D'Agata 2007).
Thanks to active lobbying by the Rapuzzi family
(no fools they) of the outstanding Ronchi di
Cialla estate, Cialla is the one subzone that still
remains. Furthermore, Cialla has a much
stricter and more quality-oriented legislation, as
its wine is monovarietal by law. I think a fourth
Friuli Venezia Giulia subzone must be consid-
ered a
grand cru
for Picolit: Savorgnano del
Torre, where Picolit often has the charm of
Cialla and the sweetness and power of Rosazzo.
Certainly, some of the greatest Picolit wines I
have ever tasted have been made by local farm-
ers from the Savorgnano area.
That producers years ago failed to under-
stand the problems they were getting them-
selves into is demonstrated by the following
story. In 2006, an offi cial presentation celebrat-
ing the new Picolit DOCG was organized in
Cividale del Friuli by the Consortium of the
Colli Orientali del Friuli, with many tastings
and dinners and a conference. It was a truly
wonderful, well-organized weekend-long event,
with foreign journalists, local experts, star-
quality chefs, producers, and government offi -
cials. I was invited to be the offi cial moderator
