Producer: Radikon | Region: Northern Italy | Style: Skin-contact
About the Wine
A benchmark Radikon blend of 60% Chardonnay and 40% Sauvignon Blanc, Oslavje combines the generosity of a remarkable 2020 vintage with layered stone fruit, herbs and striking mineral depth, carried by the estate’s hallmark skin-contact texture and energy.
Vintage 2020: Everyone has their own memories for this particular year; here it is remembered as one of our best vintages. From Spring on, the vintage was always balanced: good distribution of rain and sun, temperatures always in the average, a mild summer. Harvest started in the second decade of September, with warm and sunny days and perfect cool nights, with excellent ventilation. We couldn’t ask for more.
Wine-making: After taking off the grape stalks, the grape is put in oak vats, where maceration is held without any temperature control or chemical yeasts adding. Grape skins must be always covered with wine: that’s why during all the fermentation the cap is punched down manually two times per day. At the end of the alcoholic fermentation vats are filled and the wine stays in contact with the skins for about three months, and here takes place also the malolactic fermentation.
Cask aging: After the racking, the wine rests in rover casks (25 to 35 hl capacity) for about 3 years: in the meantime, more than one racking could be necessary.
Racking in bottles: The wine is bottled with a little addition of sulfites (total sulphur dioxide 8 mg/L), in August 2023, in bottles of 1 liter and 0,50 liters. The wine is aged in bottle before selling for at least one year and a half.
A little note on the name: In 1992 Stanko Radikon started to make this blend, calling it “Oslavje”. As all other producers were using the same grapes for their white blend, Stanko’s aim was to share this name and promote Oslavia as a “cru”, so he hadn’t registered the brand. However, there was no unity in this project and he remain the only one using this name. Then, in May 2019, following a new UE regulation, the government decided that we weren’t allowed to use the term “Oslavje” anymore (for a wine, if we were producing any other food or beverage we were allowed). To us there remains a void, a cancellation (of 27 years of history), a wound in our heart, which we have stigmatized in "O......" with so many points as the unmentionable letters.
About Radikon
The wines produced by the late Stanislao (Stanko) Radikon and his son Sasa have inspired a devoted following of winemakers, critics and consumers from all parts of the globe. The father and son team seek to produce wine that is wholly natural, without compromise.
The Radikon vineyards are set on a hillside in Oslavia between the town of Gorizia and the Slovenian border, facing South and South-east, bordered by the Julian Alps to the north, and the Adriatic sea to the South.
During his 36 vintages of Radikon, Stanko has refused to commit himself to any singular winemaking style, but has instead adopted a winemaking methodology which echoes the Friulian wines made before the 1930s: extended maceration periods, the use of large oak barrels, and manual harvesting.
The approach rejects the use of chemical pesticides, temperature-controlled fermentation and sulfur. As a result the wines of Radikon are seriously age worthy, the long maceration protecting the wine and allow it to age, creating wines, that are in Stanko’s words, ‘totally genuine.’
Snapshot
Region: Oslavia, Friuli
Country: Italy
Winemaker: Saša Radikon
Vintage: 2020
Size: 500ml
ABV: 13.5%
Varietal: Chardonnay, Sauvignon
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