Miani’s Friulano Filip and Buri: 1991-2014

BY IAN D’AGATA | JANUARY 17, 2017

If there is a better set of white wines made in Italy
than Miani’s Friulano, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Ribolla Gialla and seldom-made
Malvasia, I have yet to encounter them. Simply put, Enzo Pontoni’s wondrous, world-class
wines have few peers. Unfortunately for
collectors, however, they are made in homeopathically small quantities (only
1,200 bottles a year of the Ribolla Gialla, for example) and finding them requires
serious effort.&nbsp;






















The Pontoni home base is in Buttrio, in the Friuli
Colli Orientali denominazione. The estate
takes its name from Enzo’s mother Edda Miani. The Pontonis had always made wine,
along with rearing livestock, but only began estate-bottling in 1981. Enzo Pontoni
started working at the estate as a small child, as was commonplace in Friuli
farming families in the old days. Eventually Pontoni took over full-time in 1989
when his father Nello passed away. In order to devote himself completely to
winemaking, Pontoni gave up his career as an engineer. <img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1484600622344-Enzo+Pontoni+in+his+simple+unassuming++cellar+at+Miani+copy.JPG"> 

Enzo Pontoni in his simple unassuming &nbsp;cellar at Miani Miani’s vineyards are located mostly in the Buttrio
and Rosazzo areas of the Colli Orientali, both of which are blessed with
slightly warmer microclimates than other viticultural zones of Friuli Venezia
Giulia (FVG). Originally, the estate consisted of just 3 hectares (7.4 acres)
of vines, but today it spans 20 (49.4 acres), of which 11 (27.2 acres) are
owned and 9 (22.2 acres) are rented, including some very recently planted
parcels. About half of the estate is planted to youngish vines (i.e., around
ten years old) and the other half to very old ones (50+ years). Pontoni grows Ribolla
Gialla, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot, Tocai Friulano, and Refosco del
Peduncolo Rosso organically. He has recently increased his plantings of
Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay.






















Buttrio has always been viewed as an exceptional place
and the source of Friuli’s best reds, while Rosazzo has a long history of
delivering some of the region’s—and hence Italy’s—best white wines. Pontoni’s vineyards
are planted at roughly 100 to 300 meters above sea level, and while new
vineyards showcase high-density plantings (9,000 vines per hectare), the density
of the old vines is a relatively low 3,000 to 3,500 plants per hectare. Yields
are minuscule, as the vines are pruned enthusiastically in the winter, and the
draconian green-harvesting rarely leaves more than one or two bunches per vine.
All of Pontoni’s wines are fermented and aged in small oak barrels, and they
offer an uncommon combination of opulence and precision.Tocai Friulano
and Its Wines.&nbsp;




















Pontoni makes roughly 4,000 bottles a
year of Friulano, which makes it a large production by his standards. As a
point of clarification, the names Tocai Friulano and Friulano should not be used
interchangeably. In Italy the grape variety is called Tocai Friulano while
Friulano is the name of the wine. This is because European law, in an effort to
safeguard the Hungarian and Slovak wines made in the historic Tokaj production
zone, does not allow any other wine to be called Tocai. &nbsp;Alsace also had to stop using the Tokay-Pinot
Gris moniker for its Pinot Gris wines for the same reason. Tocai Friulano is
better known outside Italy as Sauvignonasse, and is also planted in places as diverse
as Chile, New York State and New Zealand, among others.<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1484600725409-Closeup+of+some+of+the+wines+in+the+vertical+copy+2.JPG"> 




















In Friuli Venezia Giulia, there are
at least three different biotypes of Tocai Friulano: the more common yellow-berried
grape, a much rarer green-berried version that gives wines with more intense
aromatic power, and an even rarer red-stalked biotype whose potential has yet
to be determined because no one owns enough vines to be able to make a
monovariety wine. Depending on biotypes planted, as well as on the age of the
vines, Tocai Friulano tends to give bright, light-to-medium-bodied wines with aromas
and flavors of fresh citrus fruits, apple and almond. Delicate nuances of green
fig, sage and rosemary are also common when the grapes are harvested earlier
than usual, while notes of marzipan and honey appear when the fruit is allowed
to become superripe. Another noteworthy fact about Tocai Friulano is that it is
a cultivar characterized by thin skin, and therefore autumn rains, not uncommon
in Friuli, always pose a threat to the year’s crop. It is also a reductive
variety, and thus care has to be taken in the cellar to prevent off odors from
developing.

Miani’s
Friulanos: Buri and Filip




















Miani’s Friulanos display remarkable depth of flavor and texture, coupled
with uncommon concentration and richness for wines made with this variety. And although
they are luscious to the point of decadence, they are never heavy or
unbalanced. Originally, Miani’s Friulano was a blend of grapes from vineyards
in Buttrio and Rosazzo (the first vintage of Miani Friulano dates back to 1981),
but beginning with the 2004 vintage and whenever possible, Pontoni has made two Friulano wines: Buri (named after the town of
Buttrio where the vines grow) and Filip (the name is a Friulian dialect corruption
of Filippo, the name of the family
that had always tended these vines growing near Rosazzo). Vineyards in both sites
are planted on classic marl and clay soils very typical of Friuli’s Colli
Orientali, where they are referred to as ponca
(Buttrio’s soils are richer in clay than those of Rosazzo). Given the very
old age of the vines (50+ years), yields are a paltry 15 to 18 hectoliters per
hectare. Happily, there will soon be a third Miani Friulano on the market, made
from an old vineyard in Gramogliano that Pontoni bought and completely replanted
in 2007.




















Pontoni doesn’t destem, presses gently for two hours,
then barrel-ferments using a combination of natural and selected yeasts, without
interfering with the natural temperature of fermentation. The
Friulanos spend 10 or 11 months in oak with minimal lees stirring; Pontoni has always
used barriques (all with light to
medium toast), with a maximum of 20% new, although in the last two vintages he
has been introducing some 500-liter tonneaux.
In his early winemaking days, Pontoni always put his wines through full
malolactic fermentation, but he then stopped this practice in 2000. Since the
2013 vintage, he has turned back to full malos because he believes that the
wines of the 1990s have evolved better. <img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1484667420922-the+Miani+logo+bottom+copy.JPG"> 




















Pontoni’s are the richest, deepest Friulano wines you
will ever taste, offering an uncommonly complex, plush tasting experience that
never becomes tiring. The vineyards in Buttrio tend to give a richer, fruitier wine,
and so the Friulano Buri can offer
notes of peach and pineapple and show a softer character (also true of the red
wines made from grapes grown around Buttrio), but in my experience there is
always a lovely minerality that shines through, even when the wines are young.
By contrast, the Filip is usually
more austere and slower to develop, typically revealing aromas and flavors of
orchard fruits such as pear and apple, and it is always the more mineral of the
two wines. Be aware that both Friulanos tend to be rather closed when young and
really start to blossom about six years after the vintage, or even later. And while
both wines are characterized by relatively low total acidity and high pHs, their
high extract and alcohol levels and their sheer structure allow for great
ageworthiness, in a manner not unlike that of top Hermitage Blancs. Pontoni is
able to fashion Friulanos unlike those of any other producer—at once powerfully
structured and freshly mineral, and therein lies his magic.




















I tasted the following wines at Miani in November of 2016.
All bottles were provided by Miani, except for the 2014, the 2012 and 2011 Filip,
and the 2008 Buri, which I pulled from my own cellar to make this vertical
tasting as comprehensive as possible.<a target="_blank" href="http://vinous.com/wines?sort%5Bdirection%5D=asc&amp;sort%5Bname%5D=id&amp;wine_filter%5Barticle_id%5D=1561&amp;wine_filter%5Bproducer_id%5D=2586&amp;producer=true">See All the Wines from Youngest to Oldest</a> 

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Enjoy

<a target="_blank" href="http://vinous.com/articles/miani-redux-calvari-1995-2008-and-a-preview-of-the-2009s-jun-2010">Miani Redux – Calvari:
1995-2008 and a Preview of the 2009s</a>, Antonio Galloni, June 2010




















<a target="_blank" href="http://vinous.com/articles/the-essence-of-merlot-miani-1994-2006">The
Essence of Merlot: Miani 1994-2006</a>, Antonio
Galloni, August 2009

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