Valchiarò wines on the FVG Wine and Dine Route

Food

4 April 2018

Food

Valchiarò wines on the FVG Wine and Dine Route

We are in February, the wines are resting in their barrels and the winemakers have time to welcome us and tell us their stories. This time the "Here on our hills" itinerary in the Friuli Venezia Giulia Wine and Dine Route guide (a guide that represents the project of the same name), takes us to Togliano di Torreano, a few kilometres from Cividale del Friuli to visit the Valchiarò estate, where the owner Lauro De Vincenzi welcomes us.

12 hectares of vineyards belonging to 5 friends who in 1991 decided to form a single company and over the years have changed their way of cultivating the vine, decreasing yields per hectare through targeted pruning (a system learned from the now famous Simonit and Sirch) and favouring quality rather than quantity.

The good fortune of having vines with an average age of between 30 and 50 years both in the Togliano area, more suited in terms of microclimate and soil to red grapes, and in the Torreano area, perfect for white grapes, makes it possible to maintain high-quality standards, even in the worst years in terms of weather. The company’s motto is “A Passion for wine and a Love for the vine”.

In the fine tasting room, inaugurated in 2006 together with the new cellar, we taste the estate’s wines accompanied by a selection of local cold cuts and an excellent risotto with radicchio and sausage prepared personally by the owner. The wines are all very interesting, and I am particularly impressed with the Friulano Nexus 2016, from a selection of grapes from the oldest vines, the Merlot Reserve 2013, which ages for 24 months in barrique and gives us elegant and silky tannins, and the bright Verduzzo Friulano 2015, sweet but not cloying, perfect with Cividale cakes and offering excellent value for mone