Denis Montanar "18. 6-16-9-19-10-1-12-13 – Sandrigo" 2021 Tocai Friulano Venezia Giulia IGT
Denis Montanar "18. 6-16-9-19-10-1-12-13 – Sandrigo" 2021 Tocai Friulano Venezia Giulia IGT
750ml bottle
13% abv
Location: Villa Vicentia, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy
Year Established: 1989
Size: 12.5 hectares
Viticulture: No pesticides or herbicides; hand harvested
Vinification: Indigenous yeasts, no filtering or fining
100% Tocai Friulano from a small, single plot planted in 1987 and never treated with chemicals. The grapes are destemmed, wild fermented and aged on the lees in steel for 8 months. Bottled unfiltered with minimal sulfur. Medium bodied with crushed pear, citrus pith, white flowers, and raw almond.
Denis Montanar began making wine in the late 1980s, renting vineyards that at the time were owned by his grandfather, and that had originally been worked by his great-grandfather in the early 1900s via a sharecropping arrangement. Denis, with his son Carlo now working beside him, has expanded his holdings over time to include a farmhouse and tasting room to complement the three vineyards, which are named Borc Dodon, Borc Sandrigo, and Scodovacca. They are all farmed without pesticides or herbicides, and together produce approximately 2,000 cases per year. The location is exposed to the winds from the Adriatic Sea to the south and protected by the Julian pre-Alps to the north, and the soils are a mix of sandy silt and clay. Minimal applications of sulfur and copper are used in the vineyards, which are never tilled so as to preserve the microbial health of the soil.