2016 Vie di Romans Chardonnay Friuli Isonzo DOC 750 ml

The Show-stopping Chardonnay in Pinot Grigio Country

We put ourselves in Giorgio’s hands. After all, we came to his trattoria in the Northeastern Italian town of Monfalcone because we heard he had a preternatural knowledge of Friulian wines—and we were eager to see what hyper-local, unique, indigenous white wine he would pair with our first course of fried zucchini blossoms and prosciutto-wrapped melon. We were ready for anything.

Make that almost anything. Because as our forks breached the crispy crust of the savory blossoms, Giorgio materialized with just about the only thing we didn’t expect: Chardonnay. Specifically, the 2016 Vie di Romans Chardonnay, fragrant, mouth-watering white of such generous citrus, creamy texture, and nerve, that we might have pegged it for a top Côte de Beaune Burgundy, had Giorgio not pointed (with fierce pride, we might add) toward the nearby hills where it was grown. We were astonished. In Friuli, we fully expect an incredible white wine experience—but not a James Suckling 94-point Chardonnay that recalls Puligny-Montrachet.

If you read our missives, you know how we dine when we’re on the wine trail: with our nose in the glass and one hand on the iPhone, ready to call, text, or email in order to secure the best for Wine Access members. Within hours of Giorgio’s introduction to Vie di Romans, we’d claimed an allocation of this white. It is, as Giorgio called it, a world-class wine—a Friulian Chardonnay that belongs with France’s top whites. 

Take a look through the Wine Access archives, and you’ll see that Friuli, which Vino Italiano authors David Lynch and Joseph Bastianich say produces some of the “most complex and full-bodied whites to be found anywhere in the world,” has a regular stop on our quest for heavenly white wines.

Fortunately, Vie di Romans, which is named after the ancient Roman road that courses through Friuli, has not gone unnoticed by the critics. Not only did James Suckling give an impressive 94-point score to the 2016 Chardonnay, but Antonio Galloni of Vinous has hailed the proprietor, Gianfranco Gallo, as producing “some of the finest wines in the region.” Galloni even noted Gianfranco’s “truly global vision of the wine world”—something that might factor into him putting out a world-class Chardonnay from an unexpected corner Italy.

Gianfranco’s 2016 Vie di Romans Chardonnay hails from a vintage that Wine Advocate gave 95-points—the finest ever for white wine in the Friuli area. Sourced from Vie di Romans clay and gravel vineyard in the region of Friuli Isonzo, near the Slovenian border, Vie di Romans derives its creamy texture not from malolactic or oak aging, but nine months on the lees. The result is a wine of outstanding vivacity and nerve, that strikes a perfect balance between creaminess and raciness.

It speaks volumes that, with practically all of Friuli’s world-class whites at his fingertips, Giorgio chose to share the 2016 Vie di Romans Chardonnay with us. Now, we get to share it with you. It’s a high-toned, tropical, and minerally Chardonnay that competes with top single-vineyard wines from California and Burgundy, and we’ve got it at the best price in the U.S.