MDI Wines Picolit 2021 750ml

Picolit is an obscure grape variety most widely planted in Friuli, right at the North Eastern corner of Italy along the Slovenian border. Said to be difficult to grow, with very low fruit yields per vine. It is most often made into a dessert wine called Passito, though Jancis Robinson noted in 2006 that it was being illegaly blended with Verduzzo for table wine, due to supply and demand issues surrounding Picolit grapes themselves.

These grapes were grown on the Pasut vineyard, and the wine spent 22 days on skins in open vats, before being pressed to old oak, with lots of lees contact and full malolactic fermentation. It pours a deep gold colour and smells like stewed pear, quince, marshmallows and vanilla - it's a really exotic, interesting nose. The palate is medium bodied, savoury/minerally and quite stemmy - straw, twigs and a smidge of honeysuckle, grapefruit and a little grip in the dry finish. Very long grapefruit peel aftertaste. Really, really interesting booze for the adventurous.