Vineyards at I Clivi; Ferdinando Zanusso and his son Mario

I first was introduced to the wines of I Clivi at Il Volpe e L’Uva, a wonderful wine bar in Florence in 2009. I ordered a glass of Clivi Galea 2005 because first of all I love Tocai (Friulano as we must call it today) and because this contained a small percentage of Verduzzo. I know Verduzzo as a special dessert wine from Friuli but I also know of a very few producers who vinify it dry so I was very intrigued and after one sip blown away. More than anything I was amazed by the wine’s complexity, richness, depth of flavor and incredibly long finish. There are beautiful tropical fruit notes, a subtle measure of sweet cream, the characteristic bitter almond on the finish. Following this experience, I spent 4 days at VinItaly in Verona looking for Ferdinando Zanusso. I didn’t have the name quite correct in my notes so it took a while but I eventually met with success.

We had a long conversation at VinItaly and through many subsequent emails about his “no nothing,” old-vine (60+ years) wines – no manicured vineyards, no pesticides, no herbicides, no skin contact maceration, no added outside yeasts, no oak, no racking, no filtering, no accelerated vinification, no bottling before it’s time. And then release after about one year in the bottle. These are wines meant to last. And they will, if you can keep your hands off.