A classic wine for Christmas: Pignolo by Mastri Vinai Bressan (part II)

2016-12-14 In our last post we took a look at one of Europe’s top winemaking regions: the Collio region, near Gorizia. And we went to see the vineyards of Mastri Vinai Bressan in Farra d’Isonzo, near the ancient Celtic city of Aquileia, sheltered from the north winds by the Julian Alps and open to the breezes coming in from the south over the Adriatic.
We are accompanied by Paolo Tegoni, a professional sommelier and tireless researcher of Europe’s winemaking regions and an oenological consultant for a number of Italian winemakers. He organises wine and food events, works in territorial marketing and teaches wine-tasting technique, as well as teaching at Parma University, Bologna Business School and l’IUSVE University– Istituto Universitario Salesiano in Venice.
The Bressan family has been making wine for centuries, and Fulvio and his father Nereo now cultivate about twenty hectares of vineyards in a number of areas between Farra d’Isonzo and Mariano del Friuli. According to Paolo Tegoni, “Their wines are tailored, made without forcing anything, demonstrating respect for way every single vintage expresses itself”.
When Tegoni went to visit the Bressan family, on St. Martin’s Day, “They had just finished the harvest, and upon entering the wine cellar I was assailed by indescribable aromas of must and grapes still in the proverbial ferment. I tasted some of the wines right from the barrel, where they were resting at length on fine lees, including a Pignol 1997 reserve which will soon be put on the market, available only in the magnum bottle”.
The Pignolo grape is native to Friuli Venezia Giulia, and was at risk of extinction for a long time. Fulvio harvests small lots of land in Corona, in the municipality of Mariano del Friuli. “Here there is no ‘ponca’ soil, and Pignolo thrives in soil with a prevalent skeleton rich in iron sesquioxides”.
It is a capricious vine, “which ripens late, but, if we treat it the way it deserves, offers us a red nectar of rare completeness. Bressan’s Pignol is left to ferment for about forty days, with regular punching down and pumping over to extract its precious anthocyanins. Difficult and cryptic at first, Pignolo is well worth waiting for, to enjoy its full potential for expression, sealed by a fixed acidity that Fulvio calls “embarassing””.
Paolo Tegoni enjoyed Pignol 2003: “furiously red, still winy, with multi-faceted tactile and olfactory qualities and flavour. A surly wine, delicious and profoundly rooted in Friuli. Mario Soldati is right: wine expresses itself best if we drink it with someone we can look in the eye, and this is what happens with Mastri Vinai Bressan”.

Mariagrazia Villa