Vitovska
| Friuli-Venezia Giulia
Situated in the northeastern corner of Italy bordering Slovenia, the winery was started by Paolo Vodopivec, whose sole mission is to create wines wholly their own and completely unique to the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region. With an emphasis on the local Vitovska grape, Paolo has found that skin-contact maceration is the only fool-proof way to extract the authentic and distinctive limestone minerality from the soils in which the grapes grow. That, combined with buried-amphorae fermentation, allows for the most gentle release of the terroir into the wines, which caress you with smoldering clay and salty sea spray beneath juicy orchard expressions.
A luscious floral and sultry mineral nose of orange blossom, acacia, and terra cotta opens like a wildflower in bloom, as the first sip envelops the mouth with grilled summer peaches sprinkled with good olive oil and flaky sea salt, accentuated by crunchy oyster shells, grapefruit pith, candied ginger, and toast smeared with tahini, honey, and a bit of cinnamon. Every sip fascinates and beguiles with seemingly new expressions of florals, minerals, spices, and rich orange and yellow fruits. In a word, it is tremendous.
As Wine Pilot put it so eloquently in their 96-point score, “This is a wine odyssey in a bottle. A true realisation of an artist.” In hindsight, perhaps I should have waited for an occasion a bit more worthy than the Super Bowl – but alas, it was certainly more memorable than the game, and will surely bring good conversation and camaraderie to your table when you choose to serve it.
About The Producer
Vitovska Vodopivec is a family-run estate in the Italian/Slovenian border zone of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, with deep local roots and a focus on indigenous varieties that reflect the unique terroir of the Carso and Collio regions. The family has championed the region’s traditions while embracing minimal-intervention winemaking, making wines that are textural, energetic, and expressive of the limestone and flysch soils under vine. Today Vodopivec’s Vitovska — a rare local white grape — stands out for its saline minerality, complexity, and sense of place, gaining increasing recognition among enthusiasts of characterful, site-driven whites.
