Tocai Friulano Wine Guide
Tocai Friulano is the typical white Italian wine of Friuli Venezia Giulia, indeed it is the king of the region’s white wines, so much so that you can find it in all the main wine areas from the Collio to the Colli Orientali del Friuli.
It is a well structured, firm, fragrant and fruity white wine with good flavor and little acidity. Precisely for this reason it is not so easy to produce a good Tocai Friulano, with all the richness that it brings with it, the risk of a redundant and complacent wine is always behind the barrel.
Organoleptic characteristics of Tocai Friulano
The bouquet is very rich and broad, with strong notes of flowers, salt, apricots, rocks, honey, more mineral notes and lots of almonds. There is no shortage of aromatic herbs and even green suggestions, however it is always delicate and fine, it is not a bomb.
Slightly different speech for the flavor: here it pushes a lot, has grit and pungent flavor. Alcohol and softness are not lacking and give structure to the wine, making it full and full-bodied.
It is usually harvested during the first 15 days of September, it is quite early and if you taste the beans they are very sweet and fragrant. Excessive ripening would push sugars and therefore alcohol skyrocketing.
Usually you can find salty and drinkable Tocai Friulani, not too complex, which are tasted 3-4 years after the harvest, but many winemakers are focusing on the qualities of power and structure, making the Friulano refine in wood to develop buttery notes and make the wine evolve with more mature tones.
The history of Tocai Friulano
Friulano is a native Friulian grape or at least so it was believed, since it has been established that it is actually Sauvignonasse, an ancient grape once present in Bordeaux, later replaced by Sauvignon Blanc.
We have called it Tocai Friulano, but since 1993 it is by law only Friulano, since Hungarian Tokay is the only wine that can be called by that name, although Hungarian wine is produced with Furmint. The provenance of the Tokaj region takes precedence.
The other two Tokays, the French and the German, are actually Pinot Grigio and Furmint again, so there has always been a great semantic misunderstanding, but in reality they have always been wines other than Tocai Friulano.
The name may have changed, but Friulano remains one of the great Italian white wines and in recent years we are only tasting the tip of the iceberg. There is still a long way to go, a lot is still produced on quantity, but those who have chosen the path of dense vines and limited production of great quality are producing great Friulians.
Tocai Friulano food pairings
Combine the saltyness of Friulian with luxurious fish and shellfish dishes, Thai dishes, shellfish soups, Indian chicken dishes, Piedmontese mixed fry and white meats. Recommended dishes: Mantuan-style pumpkin tortelli, spaghetti with clams, rice noodles with shrimps and vegetables, sweet and sour pork, veal with tuna sauce, ravioli with parmigiana herbs, risotto with truffles, spaghetti carbonara, tagliatelle with porcini.