2023 Ferlat Silvano Cabernet Franc Isonzo DOC Friuli-Venezia Giulia 6pk 6x750ml

Ferlat Silvano is a small family-run estate in Friuli Isonzo, founded in 1950 and now shepherded by Federica and Moreno. Eight hectares of strictly organic vineyards sit in the eastern corner of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, 25 kilometers from the Adriatic and a stone's throw from the Slovenian border — clay and alluvial stones, cool nights, warm days, and the kind of diurnal swing that keeps Cabernet Franc lifted and aromatic instead of heavy. For 50 years they sold in bulk; in 2000, Silvano decided to bottle under his own name. The move paid off.

This is textbook Friulian Cabernet Franc — the grape that thrives in this northeastern corner of Italy the way it does in the Loire, with pepper, dark berry, and a surprising thread of minerality that grocery-store Cab Franc never shows. De-stemmed fruit ferments on indigenous yeasts in concrete, punched down by hand several times a day during a 20+ day maceration, then pressed in a 1950s hydraulic press and aged 12 months in small oak. The result is a wine with character and restraint — no extraction theater, no over-ripeness, just clean fruit and structure.

Delicious dark berry, cracked pepper, smooth mid-palate, graceful finish, and a surprising spine of acidity that keeps it refreshing instead of heavy.

It's built for food or for sipping straight — the kind of wine that doesn't demand a occasion, just a glass.

We bought deep because the quality-per-dollar made the call easy. Pull the cork tonight or cellar it through the next two years — it'll hold.