I am the great Corno di Rosazzo...you will give me tocai?

i Clivi di Ferdinando Zanusso 2001 Colli Orientali del Friuli Corno di Rosazzo Galea (Friuli-Venezia Giulia) – When this producer’s wines first came into my market, they came in all at once, back to the first commercial vintage (’97), and the remarkable thing was that the ’97 Galea was not yet fully mature. That was a few years ago, and repeated dips in the well have demonstrated that it either still isn’t ready or that it has hit a long plateau and will never be “ready” in the way I’m apparently expecting. The evidence of other vintages, some of which matured faster and/or differently, still gives me a measure of hope, but I’m running out of bottles with which to test my theory. As for this, purchased (in quantity) from a recent store closeout, it’s definitely more at-peak than any ’97 of my acquaintance…though that assessment should be filtered by the possibility of variable treatment along the way, as is the case for any after-vintage closeout. Well, anyway, blah blah blah, how about this bottle? Spectacular. It’s a nervy skeleton, clacking and scraping in a stone cage, yet the bones are bright, clean, and strong. So much attention is paid to the more orange-tinted products from this region, but this – neither traditional nor paleo-modernistic – deserves more attention than it gets, and it gets a fair amount. (7/11)

i Clivi di Ferdinando Zanusso 2001 Colli Orientali del Friuli Corno di Rosazzo Galea (Friuli-Venezia Giulia) – Swaggering, which is an odd thing for a Galea to be doing (Brazan can get a little braggy after a few drinks), but I like it. Whites, beiges, tans, and creams are the “fruit” in this wine, the acidity’s supple and subtle but present, and there’s an appealing late-stage creaminess to the texture. I’d think about drinking this one sooner rather than later. (8/11)

i Clivi di Ferdinando Zanusso 2001 Colli Orientali del Friuli Corno di Rosazzo Galea (Friuli-Venezia Giulia) – A heavily-soaked cork doesn’t bode well, and this is decidedly more advanced than any Galea of my experience: thick, slow, and a bit oxidized (that is: oxidized beyond the usual oxidative tendencies of friulano made in this fashion). Bronzed stone fruit – or maybe ambered – demi-glace, cashew oil (a touch stale), incredible weight without much antigravitic structure. Despite all this, I see some lingering appeal in the wine, though none of the three others for whom I open it share my limited enthusiasm. In any case, this is not an intact bottle. (9/11)

Orientali express

i Clivi di Ferdinando Zanusso 2004 Galea Colli Orientali del Friuli (Friuli-Venezia Giulia) – Drinking a young Galea can be a little like trying to slake a hearty thirst with an icicle. This is no exception, and even though it’s decanted early and aggressively, not much can be coaxed from it over the course of an hour, other than beige minerality and a firm structure. I love these wines, but I love them with age, and since even the 1997 (the first vintage of this wine) isn’t yet fully mature to my palate, I see no reason to submit any additional stocks to this manner of infanticide. (2/10)

Cantarutti-toot toot

Cantarutti 2006 Colli Orientali del Friuli Ribolla Gialla (Friuli-Venezia Giulia) – Pretty classic, straightforward ribolla, with the weight, skin tones, and mild oxidation one expects. A little leafy tarragon, old rocks, a yellowish haze…it’s all there. The finish is short. A basic wine. (7/09)

Ferdinando's hideaway

i Clivi di Ferdinando Zanusso 1997 Colli Orientali del Friuli Galea Corno di Rosazzo (Friuli-Venezia Giulia) – Fairly advanced for this bottling, which has spent some time in a warmish store (Vintages, Belmont Center) and might have been displayed standing up for a time. All this really means, though, is that the wine is a lot closer to full maturity than pristine bottles: honeysuckle and fine-grained pollen with a lovely milky texture and very good length. (12/08)

I am the great Corno di Rosazzo

i Clivi di Ferdinando Zanusso 1997 Colli Orientali del Friuli Galea Rosso Corno di Rosazzo (Friuli-Venezia Giulia) – 100% merlot, planted at 2000 vines per hectare. Earthy/gritty tannin, granular cherry and strawberry, and then a finish with the rough, friction-y texture of old leather. A bit of whiskey barrel sweetness emerges on the finish, but the wine isn’t hot. It is, however, in need of drinking. (11/07)

Galea sayers

i Clivi di Ferdinando Zanusso 2001 Colli Orientali del Friuli Galea Corno di Rosazzo (Friuli-Venezia Giulia) – While it appears to broaden in the glass, in fact this wine is a lot less forward than it was a year earlier, so those holding some will now likely need to wait out its maturation. Herbs and a fine minerality are at the core, with a crescendo to a feathery finish that, nonetheless, remains full of mineral solemnity. (11/07)

i Clivi di Ferdinando Zanusso 1999 Colli Orientali del FriuliGalea Corno di Rosazzo (Friuli-Venezia Giulia) – From a warm vintage in which some of the berries started to desiccate, then recovered some of their plumpness just before harvest. This has opened a bit since my previous tasting, and the dominant characteristic is that of honey without its sweetness, lightly dusted with dried sage. Long and round, but still too young. There’s a very mild and pleasant oxidation on the finish, which I find to be entirely typical of these wines, and in fact hardly unknown among tocais in general. (11/07)

i Clivi di Ferdinando Zanusso 1997 Galea Corno di Rosazzo (Colli Orientali del Friuli) – Mostly open, but I still wouldn’t say it’s on the far side of maturity. Wax and oxidation layered with late-autumn leaves and a long, sandy finish. Letting its hair down, and those with a quantity will want to start sampling from their collection. (11/07)

Galea-force winds

i Clivi di Ferdinando Zanusso 2003 Colli Orientali del Friuli Galea (Friuli-Venezia Giulia) – A little bit sulfurous at the moment. The nose is heavy and alcoholic (it was, as everywhere else, a very hot year for grape-growing), and not showing much under its twin assaults of lead and SO₂. The finish suggests mint, but it’s tight. Solid, fat, long, but formless. However…after two hours in a warm (that’s European “warm”) room, a little bit more has emerged, including some ripe melon and a harder edge to the structure. It’s still a fat, flabby wine, though. (11/07)

That old Galea of mine

i Clivi di Ferdinando Zanusso 2000 Colli Orientali del Friuli Galea Rosso (Friuli-Venezia Giulia) – Smoky meat, mushroom, and fine-grained tannin. But that’s all there is, and this wine is beyond difficult at the moment; I have confidence for the future based on past performance, but it’s not worth drinking right now. (9/08)

What you call Corno, we call maize-o

i Clivi di Ferdinando Zanusso 1997 Colli Orientali del Friuli Galea Corno di Rosazzo (Friuli-Venezia Giulia) – A little more advanced than other bottles I’ve tasted, though I still wouldn’t call it ready (and I attribute the difference to normal bottle variation). Parchment, bones, tea, grey-white soil, dried apricot chip, and more. What begins with brittleness and spines smoothes and rounds as the wine lingers. Just beautiful. (6/08)

Zamò of that, please

Le Vigne di Zamò 2004 Colli Orientali del Friuli Rosazzo Ribolla Gialla (Friuli-Venezia Giulia) – Our lightest ribolla yet, showing waxed melon on a dry bed of river gravel. Austere but pleasant, with a solid structure despite its light-bodied nature. The finish is surprisingly long, though it fails to reveal additional complexity. This could just be a little young, but while it appears to have the skeleton to age, it may lack the flesh. (10/07)

Ferdinando's hideaway

i Clivi di Ferdinando Zanusso 1997 Galea Corno di Rosazzo Colli Orientali del Friuli (Friuli-Venezia Giulia) – Opens with a nearly-silent austerity, to the extent that I’m initially worried it might be corked. It grows with air and time, building paper-thin layers of straw and the palest yellow fruit atop a firm yet elusive foundation; the structure’s there, but it’s impossible to say exactly how. And yet, it never stops holding back, no matter how many times I go back to it later in the evening, or even the next day (it certainly doesn’t fall apart over that period). Supremely elegant, and if I knew the wine better I’d presume that it was still not at full maturity, but I doubt even the Zanussos know for sure. In any case, it has not undergone the transformation evident in its companion wine, Brazan. (3/08)

Tributes to Paul Draper

Le Vigne di Zamò 1999 Colli Orientali del Friuli Pignolo (Friuli-Venezia Giulia) – Striking, and unlike anything I’ve tasted before. A smoky nose gestures towards meatiness that’s not quite brett or the concentrated animalism of Rhône syrah, but this is in turn washed away by a crisp, boisterous surf of blackberries and plums. Dark and very purple-tasting, with seeds and peppercorns on the finish. Juicy, wet, and long. The acidity here is almost scraping, and yet the wine somehow manages to retain its balance and poise. I have no idea how this is aging, because my experience with pignolo is virtually nil – and because I can’t even imagine how to contextualize what I’m tasting – but in any case, it’s delicious right now. (10/07)

Levitra or Cialla?

Ronchi di Cialla 2006 Colli Orientali del Friuli Ribolla Gialla (Friuli-Venezia Giulia) – Lightly waxy, chenin-like, and saline. Dry, despite a rich weightiness that usually only comes with residual sugar, and tannic (not to Gravner-esque levels, but definitely in the fashion of long-hanging ribolla). Intense. I like it, though Theresa thinks it tastes like a dry version of communion wine. I’m not sure if that’s a compliment. (10/07)

Take the Helm

Livon 2003 Colli Orientali del Friuli Pignolo (Friuli-Venezia Giulia) – Outright nasty when first opened, as if it wants to punish me for having the audacity to remove its cork. After some soothing words and calming gestures, it recedes to the status of tannic monster, like so many of its 2003 brethren. There’s great concentration here, coalescing a wine that moves from the darkness to the light with relative ease despite the weighty oppression of its structure. Floral compost aromatics dominate. There may be a lot of potential here, but the wall of tannin is currently impenetrable, and so I guess one must – as with any 2003 for which there is hope – wait and see. Emphasis on “wait.” (10/07)

The sea of Galea

i Clivi di Ferdinando Zanusso 2002 Galea Colli Orientali del Friuli (Friuli-Venezia Giulia) – Rain-churned dust, shells, and hazelnut with…marshmallows? If so, they’re natural, unsweetened, and slightly green. It’s a difficult descriptor to use, because it suggests the wine is synthetic when in reality it is almost completely the opposite; marshmallow is, here somewhat of a textural descriptor…but then again, not entirely. If anyone has ever tasted real marshmallow (from the plant), they’ll know what I’m talking about. The wine moves from Mario’s suggested lightness to greater weight and fatness on the midpalate, then recedes again, while at the same time building an edifice of spice and complexity on top of its foundation. Very tight, but balanced, with acid perhaps a bit more present than in other vintages. The finish is very, very long. After an hour or so in the glass, floral notes emerge. This should be a beauty, one day. (7/07)

i Clivi di Ferdinando Zanusso 2001 Galea Corno di Rosazzo Colli Orientali del Friuli (Friuli-Venezia Giulia) – Strong anise up front (which Mario identifies as the verduzzo). Bigger and more forward than the 2002, showing ripe tangerine rind and bitter orange soda on the finish. It nestles the palate for a time, then turns more angular on the finish, which is shorter than that of the ’02. For whatever reason, I find this wine a half-step behind the 2002 in quality, though I think it will age just about as long. (7/07)

i Clivi di Ferdinando Zanusso 1999 Galea Corno di Rosazzo Colli Orientali del Friuli (Friuli-Venezia Giulia) – Served warmer than I’d like. There’s a touch of volatile acidity here, and a slight prickle to the palate, which has a texture similar to that of linen. A bit fat, with perhaps a touch of heat (though that’s undoubtedly exacerbated by the temperature of the wine)…though this is clearly a big wine by any estimate, with juicy orange and greengage plum beating on each other like a large-barreled floor tom. Later cooling just mutes the wine, without really dealing with the more functional issues. (7/07)

i Clivi di Ferdinando Zanusso 1997 Galea Corno di Rosazzo Colli Orientali del Friuli (Friuli-Venezia Giulia) – Dusty, with a beautiful mineral-driven nose. Later, there’s lemon verbena and mint, along with creamed apricot blossom and peach flowers. The palate is explosive yet silky, and the age lends a sensation (but not the actual presence) of sweetness. Gorgeous, and at a fine point in its maturity…though I don’t see any need for panicked consumption; this wine is still quite intact. (7/07)

Ferdinando's hideaway

i Clivi di Ferdinando Zanusso 2000 Galea Rosso Colli Orientali del Friuli (Friuli-Venezia Giulia) – Grey and black earth are here less a foundation than a wrapping, like a soil-enclosed truffle cored with dried red, blue and black fruit that flow forth with a gorgeous, silken texture. The finish is long, dusty and exceedingly pleasant. A very polished wine, perhaps not with the inherent character of the whites, but fine in its own right. (7/07)