2020 Vino Intrepido 'Straight Jakot' Mornington Peninsula Friulano

Friulano is a marginal variety both in Australia and Italy. One of the first regions it was planted in Australia was the Mornington Peninsula, thanks to the pioneering work of Kathleen Quealy and Kevin McCarthy. Kathleen introduced me to her good friend Joe Vaughan in Tuerong. I was excited to test out a theory that I had that friulano could work as both an aromatic and a textural wine.Just over two tonnes were machine harvested at the end of vintage. After bringing the fruit back to the winery we put it in the cool-room for two days of cold-soaking to lend a bit of texture whilst preserving the aromatics. After pressing and settling, roughly 60% was transferred to mature barriques and the rest to stainless steel for spontaneous fermentation. At the completion of fermentation tank fermented wine was transferred to oak, and malolactic fermentation was halted. The wine spent six months on lees until it was racked and blended for bottling in early December 2020.In the Friuli region Friulano used to be known as Tocai, and the Slovenian spelling was Tokaj. On the Italian side of the border, they officially changed the name to Friulano (due to protections of the Hungarian Tokaji region), but some producers started referring to the grape as Jakot, merely a reversal of the former name. This is where I got the name Straight Jakot from, as it is also 100% Friulano.