2018 Friulano Dolée

Speaking with Gianfranco Gallo of Vie di Romans was an incredibly educational experience. It’s not rare to see a winemaker speak with passion and knowledge about their region and craft, but it is rare to meet one who will spend more time talking to you about their region, it’s history and the importance of the surrounding territories in depth, before even mentioning a single accomplishment of their own. That said, accomplishments abound at this estate. Gianfranco Gallo took over the management in 1978, and he quickly began to reorganize the vineyards with a quality-over-quantity approach in mind. His goal was to create cleaner wines that could stand the test of time, but also to begin bottling individual expressions from each vineyard, which started with the 1990 vintage. It was also around this time that he decided to begin holding the wines back for an extra year in the winery cellar, a practice that was unheard of by most producers in the region. When asked when he was finally happy with the changes that were made over the course of the last forty years, keeping in mind that he had been rethinking his vineyard philosophies and re-tuning them through the 2000 vintage, Gallo explained that it was only ten years ago. Having said that, Vie di Romans remains very proud of the ageability of the wines and their library of back vintages. When I think back to my first experience with the portfolio, it was around 2011 and I was tasting a 2004 Chardonnay, which was in a beautiful place at the time. Another challenge that we spoke of is global warming, which again has the winery rethinking vineyard practices in an attempt to slow ripening. It was explained that a ripening process that at one time took fifty days can now happen in only thirty, which would greatly reduce the quality of the fruit. Having said all of this, there’s certainly a glimmer of hope when tasting through this portfolio, which remains, unmistakably Vie di Romans in quality and character.