Way back in 1994 the late Stanko Radikon decided to use what many in Friuli commonly call ‘the full potential of the grapes’ with making white wine. "Why do we throw away these skins which spend so much time with the flesh and juice of a grape when on the vine" Saša, Stanko’s son and heir-apparent winemaker, questions, "my father decided that he would begin some experiments with the old winemaking techniques of the region and extended the maceration of skins with the white wines to longer times. His father had told him about these methods and he knew that he could preserve the wine longer, while extracting more about the flavours of the grape, the colour of the grape and the texture, which the skin included". The resulting wines deepened in colour, but needed longer time in oak and bottle to truly come together.
Stanko Radikon didn’t go half measure either; his winery experimentation initially saw weeks of skin contact, but this increased to six months and beyond for some of his smaller batches of wine. "The ripeness of the grape is the most important thing for us", says Saša over lunch in the homely family kitchen while slurping a luminous green zucchini soup, "terroir comes out in these wines, the wines are individual from every place here, but we see an emotion here too, we (people) react in a different way to these wines".
"These are some of the most remarkable wines on planet earth. Individual, deeply reflective of culture and place, incredibly delicious and satisfying. They drink with energy and structure in youth yet can mature for very long periods of time in cellar. The orange wines are benchmarks globally, the reds often unsung but equally compelling (and rare)." – Mike Bennie, P&V co-founder
Radikon
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