Do we ship to you?.
More Details
Varietal: Chardonnay
There are few white wine grape varietals as famous or widely appreciated as the Chardonnay, and with good reason. This highly flexible and adaptable grape quickly became a favorite of wineries due to its fairly neutral character. This neutrality allows the wineries to really show off what they are capable of doing, by allowing features of their terroir or aging process to come forward in the bottle. As well as this, most high quality wineries which produce Chardonnay wines take great efforts to induce what is known as malolactic fermentation, which is the conversion of tart malic acids in the grapes to creamy, buttery lactic acids associated with fine Chardonnay. Whilst the popularity of Chardonnay wines has fluctuated quite a considerable amount over the past few decades, it seems the grape varietal allows enough experimentation and versatility for it always to make a successful comeback.
Region: Friuli-Venezia Giulia
The beautiful, mountainous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia in northern Italy is home to many of the countries finest and most interesting wines. Because of the region's close proximity to the Austrian and Slovenian borders, there is a fascinating Germanic influence on the wine culture of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, where you are as likely to find delicious, crisp white Riesling and Pinot Bianco wines alongside more classic Italian varietals, such as Pinot Grigio. The white wines of the region are renowned for their alpine character, and are prized for their dryness, and their ability to express their fantastic terroir. Friuli-Venezia Giulia's location, between the Alps and the Adriatic, provides plenty of fresh and airy character to the wines which are produced here, and the region is becoming increasingly popular with those seeking something a little different from their Italian white wines.
Country: Italy
For several decades in the mid to late twentieth century, Italy's reputation for quality wines took a fairly serious blow. This was brought about partly due to lack of regulation in certain regions, and too much regulation in others. This led to several wineries in the beautiful and highly fertile region of Tuscany making the bold move to work outside of the law, which they saw as responsible for the drop in quality in Tuscan wines. They believed that they had the expertise and the generations of experience necessary with which to make truly excellent, world class wines, and set about doing just that. These 'Super Tuscans', as they came to be known, quickly inspired the rest of Italy to improve their produce, and now, Italian wine producers in the twenty-first century are widely recognised to be amongst the best in the world. Regulation and law began to change, and wine drinkers across the globe woke up to the outstanding wines coming out of Italy, which are continuing to improve and impress to this day.