2019 Conte d'Attimis Maniago Vignaricco Colli Orientali del Friuli 6pk 6x750ml

“Our wines already exist in nature, in our plants and our vineyards. We worry about one thing and one thing only: taking care of it, so that it grows strong.”

Conte d’Attimis-Maniago’s philosophy is clear: Create exceptional and well-crafted wines, combine the tradition of the region with their own new and creative methods, and transmit to the consumers the greatness of the land.

February 15, 1585. That is the date the d'Attimis-Maniago family took the hill at Buttrio, and they are still on it.

Four and a half centuries later the estate still sits where it always sat, in the Friuli Colli Orientali east of Udine. The soil is marl and sandstone with a heavy clay streak — locals call it ponca. Friuli built its reputation on white wine. This family kept working the native reds anyway: Pignolo, Tazzelenghe, Schioppettino.

Vignaricco is where the two ideas meet. Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot build the frame — dark fruit, real structure, a finish that holds. Then comes the Schioppettino, and that is the part I care about. It is the local grape, and it is what keeps this from reading as a Bordeaux impersonation made in the wrong country.

The farming is old-fashioned in the good way. South-facing rows, Guyot-trained, picked by hand from the second week of October with the bunches sorted right there in the vineyard.

In the cellar: long maceration on the skins at a controlled 28°C, then oak — big casks and small barrels. After bottling it lies flat in the estate's sixteenth-century underground cellar for about a year before anyone is allowed to sell it. That patience is why it already shows garnet with ruby lights instead of young purple.

Friuli reds get overlooked because the whites got famous first. That is the entire opportunity here.

Decant it ten minutes. Put it next to something braised.