Schiopetto Collio Friulano 2010 (Friuli)

Friuli has been in the news a bit of late, courtesy of Fulvio Bressan, and for attitudes about race rather than their wines. Producers from the region, such as Schiopetto, deserve a different kind of attention.

But 'region' is a bit of a strange notion in this north eastern corner of Italy. Friuli is bound up in a partnership, as Friuli-Venezia Giulia, which in turn is a third of the Tre Venezie 'region', alongside Trentino-Alto Adige/Sudtirol and the Veneto.

There are cultural threads linking these regions, including influences Slavic, Austro-Hungarian and Teutonic, which have had a bearing on the grapes grown and the wines made. Collio, where this Friulano wine from Schiopetto comes, is right up against the Italy-Slovenia border, in the foothills of the alps but with a maritime climate as well, being also close to the Adriatic. There are some red wines made in Collio, but white wines dominate, and white wines of richness, intensity and weight.

This wine is made from the Friulano grape and carries off its ripeness and driving weight well, but blends are common here too. Friulano, chardonnay, malvasia, ribolla gialla, pinot grigio, pinot bianco, sauvignon blanc - it is a rich palette for single variety or blended white wine making.

As complex and balanced as the blends can be, this was attractive drinking as a single-variety bottling, giving pear juice, lemons and an astringent lift on the finish. The 13% alcohol tucked itself in well on the first night, but started to show a little on a second day open as the fruit backed away. Made in stainless steel, the weight and power is pretty much all fruit here. The juice does see a little air early in the winemaking, which shows in the richer-yellow colour of the wine, but fruit wins out over winemaking.

A stirfry of asparagus and mushrooms, steak rested in good soy sauce, and fried rice made with pickled radish & sour-pickled mustard greens was a fair challenge for a wine, but this Friulano was up for it, being the pick of the table over a good 2011 Hunter shiraz. I have another bottle of this, which I reckon might be headed for a crumbed veal cutlet.

Well worth a look if you are interested in rich & full whites that are not reliant on oak input.

Purchase, $45, cork, 13% alcohol, website here, importer Deja vu Wine Company.

Primo Estate Joseph 'Moda Amarone' Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot 1997

The twelfth Moda 'amarone' made by Primo Estate, this is 90% cabernet sauvignon from McLaren Vale and 10% merlot from both the Vale and Coonawarra. This bottle (apalling, powdered cork, but sound) shows more of cabernet than of the grape-drying amarone processes, but in a good way. Gentle black cherry, a little dusty, olive character, and an attractive bitter chocolate edge on the resolved tannins.

It may be a bit of cork influence showing, as well as bottle age, but there is a lightness to the cabernet fruit here that lets the acid shine and the wine offer some real delicacy and refreshment. At the end of its drinking life, this bottle, but a better cork may have more years yet to offer this vintage of the Moda.

An auction buy at around $45.

Rocca de Montegrossi 2011 Chianti Classico (Tuscany)

Big, rich, wild & juicy, this is still characterised by the sour cherry, acid cut and drying tannin of Sangiovese. There is 5% Colorino to lift the colour and weight of fruit. The mulberry and wild bramble characters seem those of the 5% Canaiolo, unless a bit of something merlot-like slid into the vat. The tannin and acid say Tuscany, but the fruit looks more Australian - a good mix. Drink this young, while the fruit has sway.

Tasted over two nights: first with smoked lamb & cous cous; second with penne, bacon & mushrooms. The fruit more expansive, the tannins more assertive the second night, but both times good drinking.

Cork, 13.5% alcohol, brought in by Trembath & Taylor, $36, purchase, website here.

Pieropan La Rocca Soave 2011 (Veneto)

Earlier this week, I made it along to a tasting of a dozen Mencia wines from Spain. I have a lot of time for the Mencia grape and was keen to see wines from Bierzo, Ribeira Sacra and parts nearby in a group. The first thing to say is the wines were tasted without food and the second that quite a few of the wines were talked down by tasters for being 'short' and having 'short fruit'. I was puzzled for a while at hearing this about wines where I thought there was some length. It took me a while to realise I was content to see tannin, acid and non-fruit flavours carrying the wine out, with the fruit bunching up in the front and middle of the wine. But for other tasters, this was not length. Length was fruit, fruit the way along. So only a small number of the Mencia wines appealed to them, those with length of fruit.

So why a note on a Soave starting off in the north of Spain?

This Soave Classico from Pieropan is a good showing of what the Garganega grape can do. It is a single vineyard bottling, from a vineyard on the side of the Monte Rocchetta hill. Pieropan are old hands and sure; first making a Soave under this label in 1978.

A combination of sweet, floral and gently nutty smells here that I think of as like good nougat. Tasting the wine, there is an overt pear character, a bit of apple tucked away underneath and some bright lemony acid stitching things together. The fruit is generous, nothing stinting, but leaves room enough for a finish that is all about mineral, acid and some subtle grip. A classic example of a wine with a lot of length that uses more than fruit to get there. Judging this for length of fruit alone would miss the point. Much as with some of those Mencia wines, for my tastes.

Going strong on a second night open, this could be enjoyed by itself or with a fish or chicken dish using some grain and lemon. Fish tagine with pickled lemon and cous cous, maybe. I had it out at Pulp Kitchen with an excellent chicken liver dish, so lighter terrines and pates would be good too. A fine reminder for me of how much interest and versatility there can be in the best of Soave.

Cork, $37, purchase, brought in by Trembath & Taylor, 13% alcohol, website here.

Biondi-Santi Rosso di Montalcino 2009 (Tuscany)

Biondi-Santi's Rosso di Montalcino is intended for earlier drinking than their long-lived Brunello. The 2009 Rosso is a softly-spoken kind of wine. Quietly assured, no clamour for attention, no tickets on itself, but lacking nothing.

It shows how sangiovese need not rely on fruit for appeal. There is only a faint hint of cherry here, with the wine relying on a savoury balance of tannin and acid. There is perfume, softly so, and gently persistent length. Ample room for food alongside a glass of this and fair value for the pleasure it offered.

Cork, $80-$90, 13.5% alcohol, Mondo Imports.

Morrisons of Glenrowan Fiano Garganega 2013 (Glenrowan & King Valley)

Earlier this year I spent a bit of time tooling around Glenrowan, checking in to the old vine Trebbiano at Booths Taminick and a quick look at the Bailey's vintage port. Whereas I went to Baileys expecting to buy and left empty handed and disappointed, the punt taken on a first visit to Morrisons came off.

While I often think of Beechworth as the 'higher country' for Rutherglen and Glenrowan, the latter has its own slopes over and up to Mt Glenrowan and the Warby Range. The Morrison's site feels different to other Glenrowan vineyards. It looks like ideas tipped out at random across a hillside. A plot of vines here, a bit of green building over there, a winding track designed to disorient and lift SUV driving blood pressures. You half expect a grove of miniature, chainsaw-carved Ned Kellys or a nudist colony, or some full-beard mix of both.

Bob and Dianne Morrison run the place, but there are vines over in the King Valley as well as the art-farm-colony on the hill at Glenrowan. The ideas carry inside their sheds and cellar door, or maybe spilled out from there in the first place. Bob's a gregarious guy - a distracted air about him, a sense it's the women that yoke the ideas to the ground.

The more you talk with the Morrisons, the more you get a sense the whole thing is a blend of the deliberate and the accidental, a pinball rythym of ideas across time and site. Lets try a distinctly lighter style of Durif from a NSW-developed, lower alcohol durif clone, but grow it at Glenrowan? Sounds good. Cock a snoot at that Rutherglen durif. Why not a bit of Glenrowan tempranillo as well?

And then something wilder still. Why not a blend of Fiano and Garganega? But let's turn Soave & Campania inside out and around. Why not ripen the Garganega to a rich texture of pear-juice and apple-candy, but do the Fiano light, bright and lean, then put them together? They won't see that one coming. It'll be a bit Barbie, a bit Bride of Frankenstein, all off to a school dance, corset holding in the pieces.

I didn't see it coming. But I liked it. And did I mention Bob is keen on the Zork closure, so there is no screwcap or cork? A bottle drunk at home in Canberra perked up early and held its own with chicken & pasta. Towards the end of the bottle the air started to show in cut-apple-brown, but in a group on a warm day at lunch, I'd wager this wouldn't last long enough.

I still don't think I completely understand what's going on at that Glenrowan hill, but the distinctive, scatty vision, stitching ideas and places together, experiment piled on... there is a freedom there, a sense of plowing your own road. Worth some attention and regard, for mine.

Website, $18, 12% alcohol, Zork.

Corte Sant'Alda "Ca' Fiui" Valpolicella 2008 (Veneto)

More Valpolicella.

Peppery spice, sap and stalk to smell. Fruit to the rear, but it is there, as are tannin and acid, tucked down under. If Valpolicella had a cool climate shiraz love child, this would be what it is like.

Which is not bad. Especially with braised lentils and cotechino sausage. No mustard fruits to hand, but a bright tomato pickle worked well in Cremona's stead. A touch of some dull, woody note, which could be oak or the mildest of cork taints. The final impression is somewhat underdone, the 12.5% alcohol shows as gaps in the weight and carry of fruit. A week more of good weather (or a different picking choice and winemaking style preference) would have made a more convincing wine.

Cork, 12.5% alcohol, $40, Mondo Imports.