Friuli-Fest at Rucola 16.02.24
08.02.2024 by Odin Ottem Berntsen
A tribute to the Friulian Orange Wines
On Friday the 16th of February, I am inviting everyone in Oslo to join this special event at Rucola in The Conduit Oslo. We will be serving 6 incredible and very special orange wines from some of the top producers in Friuli, along with a food pairing menu made by the team at Rucola.
You can join for just some glasses (half or full even), share a bottle with someone, try the tasting flight, try some of the food, or go for the full tasting menu. I wanted this to be the easiest way to explore Friulian orange wines, as well as being able to try them with some delicious Northern Italian food from Rucola.
What is Friulian orange wine?
Friuli, also known as Friuli-Venezia Giulia, is a wine region located northeast of Italy on the border to Slovenia, Austria, and the Adriatic Sea. This is an unknown region for a lot of people, but for those who have discovered it, there is nothing quite like it.
This region have been making fantastic wine for many years, but they have also been pioneers when it comes to the macerated style of orange wine (also called amber wine, vini macerati, or just skin contact wine). Back in the 1990s, a group of producers from this region went to Georgia for inspiration on how wine was made back in the day. What they discovered on this trip was the method of macerating white wine with the skins to extract color, flavor, and structure. They also learned how to use clay amphoras that the Georgians buried in the ground to control the temperature.
After this trip, the group of producers went back and started to make orange wines, all in their unique ways. In the beginning, their wines were discarded and considered "faulty" and "oxidized". Today, these producers are some of the worlds most known and popular orange wine producers.
