Wine & Spirits - Winter 2017 - 71

Skerlj

In the foothills of Italy's southern Appenine range, Raffaele Troisi makes racy,
mineral-driven wines from indigenous white varieties.

Brisk, saline white wines from two widely different vintages show Matej Skerlj's
skill as a winemaker, and earn this Friulian winery its first spot in the Top 100.

Irpinia Natives: Troisi learned winemaking from his grandmother Elisa
Troisi, who took over the family farm when her husband died in 1955.
The family sold its fruit to other producers until 1984, when Troisi's
father, Antonio, bottled the first commercial release of a Vadiaperti
fiano. Troisi took over in 1998, and continued the family's tradition
of making only single-variety wines with fiano, greco and coda di
volpe grapes culled from their vineyards around Montefredane. In
the cellar, he lets the spotlight fall squarely on differences of variety
and terroir by fermenting and aging his wines in stainless steel, without any extended skin contact or lees stirring.

Carso Crossroads: The Carso is a narrow limestone plateau that rises
above the Adriatic Sea east of Trieste. The Slovenian border runs parallel to the coast, less than five miles away as the crow flies. Ruled by
the Habsburg Empire until 1918 and claimed by Yugoslavia in 1945,
the region became part of Italy in 1954. Skerlj's grandfather bought
a farm here after World War II and passed it along to his son Just,
who made wine when he wasn't tending to his car repair business in
Trieste. Matej Skerlj (he pronounces the j like a y) worked alongside
his father in the cellar from an early age, and joined the business full
time in 1999 at the age of 19.

Smoke & Salt: It's hard to beat Aipierti for complexity and longevity.
Pure fiano from a single vineyard, the 2015 is more about smoke and
salt than fruit flavors. Dense and chewy in texture, it tastes of green
olive and smoked pork, with flavors of white peach emerging only
after several hours of exposure to air. It's built to age, a characteristic
that Troisi likes to emphasize for visitors by opening bottles from the
late 1980s and early '90s that still feel vibrant and alive. While you're
waiting for Aipierti to come around, try his delicious entry-level
fiano. Its delicate honeysuckle scents and golden apple flavors laced
with mouthwatering acidity offer immediate refreshment.

Three Varieties: Skerlj's vines push through shallow, iron-rich red
topsoil into deep limestone, each plant secured by stakes and wires
to withstand the punishing Bora wind that sweeps down from the
north. He works with just three varieties, making white wines from
vitovska and malvasia, and a red from terrano. Skerlj's father made
conventional white wines in the "fresh" style, but Skerlj admired
the skin-macerated white wines of the region and learned
to produce them from neighboring winemakers like
Benjamin Zidarich and Paolo Vodopivec. Both of
Skerlj's whites typically spend three weeks on
the skins before moving into large Slavonian
oak casks, where they rest for a year without
any lees stirring. He believes in a hands-off
approach in the cellar, saying half-jokingly,
"We go into the cellar only twice a year."

Coda di Volpe: Troisi also makes two wines based on
coda di volpe, a native variety that's perhaps less
well known than fiano or greco, but one that
has an uncanny ability to translate the terroir of Irpinia's mineral-rich soils. Troisi culls
Torama from his oldest vines, ranging in
age from 40 to 60 years of age. Like Aipierti, Torama shows briny and savory notes
before revealing its fruit, its apple and citrus flavors brightened by a stream of salinity. His entry-level bottling from the 2015
Raffaele Troisi
vintage is almost as impressive, with a chiseled minerality and brisk green fruit flavors
that gain notes of lemongrass and smoke with
air-and it costs less than $20 a bottle. -S.J.

Tale of Two Vintages: The cool, rainy 2014
vintage left Skerlj with thin-skinned, highMatej Skerlj
acid malvasia and vitovska, so he kept the
juice on the skins for five months rather than
the usual three weeks in order to build structure
in the wines. His patience paid off with a pair of
electrifying wines. The 2014 Vitovska is fresh, fragrant
with scents of herbs and sea breezes along with flavors of
peach and white fig. The 2014 Malvasia feels sunny and brisk, notes
of fennel and cumin weaving through golden peach and white cherry
juiciness. Skerlj's 2013 whites feel round and fleshy in their
stone-fruit flavors, reflecting the warmer vintage. He also
made a delicious terrano in 2013, with vibrant sour-plum
flavors accented by notes of juniper and anise. -S.J.

DETAILS & TOP WINES

Founded: 1984 * Partner/winemaker/viticulturist:
Raffaele Troisi * Acres owned: 11.4 * Annual production:
5,833 cases * Estate grown: 60% * Importer: Artisan
Wines, Norwalk, CT/North Berkeley Imports, Berkeley, CA
Website: vadiaperti.it

Founded: 1996 * Winemaker/viticulturist: Matej Skerlj
Owner: The Skerlj family * Acres owned: 6.9 * Annual
production: 700 cases * Estate grown: 100% * Importer:
North Berkeley Imports, Berkeley, CA/T. Edward Wines, NY
Website: skerlj.it

94 2015 Fiano di Avellino Aipierti $38 (6/17)
93 2015 Irpinia Torama Coda di Volpe $38 (6/17)
92 2015 Fiano di Avellino $22 (6/17)

94 2014 Venezia Giulia Vitovksa $48 (8/17)
92 2013 Venezia Giulia Vitovksa $38 (8/17)
92 2014 Venezia Giulia Malvasia $48 (8/17)

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BUYING GUIDE 2018

TOP 100 WINERIES 2017

Vadiaperti

http://www.vadiaperti.it http://www.skerlj.it

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Wine & Spirits - Winter 2017