Fabulous in Friuli: Radikon Never Lets Us Down

The Radikons... have operated on another borderline, making wines that wander into territory half-forgotten in an age of chemical farming and technological winemaking. Their wines astound for their purity, their distinctiveness and their almost radical evocation of a pre-modern age.

—Eric Asimov, the New York Times
 

Back when the wine world's less adventurous voices confidently proclaimed that Georgian wine would "never" be a thing, that Movia was "too weird", and skin-contact white wine was "too niche", we knew Radikon was something special, authoritatively defining an emerging category. As we've watched orange wine's popularity skyrocket — with producers around the world crafting their own versions to varying degrees of success — Radikon has never, ever let us down.
 
From a region that, at least on the world stage, has never had a "normal," Stanislao "Stanko" Radikon managed to carve out an identity all his own. The wines grown at his Oslavia estate, about as close as you can get in Friuli to the Slovenian border, have taught the world how to love orange wine. They've also turned out some fantastic reds in the process, using the region's traditional grapes, Merlot and Pignolo.
 
Originally planted by Stanko's grandfather, the vines here grow on clay, marl and limestone soil, positioned dauntingly close together on steep slopes. It's challenging farming, with no synthetic materials (that's been true since 1995) and minuscule yields of just 2.25 tons to the acre that must be gathered by hand. But even such carefully farmed fruit could fail in lesser hands. When it comes to winemaking strategy, Stanko always simply shrugged and offered that he makes wine the way his grandfather did.
 
When Stanko passed away in 2016, the wine world mourned his early departure––he was only 62––and celebrated his incredible legacy, but no one had any fears about the future of Radikon. Stanko's son Sasa (a partner since 2006), his wife Suzana, and his daughter Ivana were at his side right from the start, and just like Stanko, they continue to make the wine the way it has been made all along.
 
This means the grapes are vinified with native yeast, macerated on the skins for 35 days for red wines and up to six or seven months beyond that for the whites. Wines are matured in Slavonian oak barrels for up to 3 years. No sulfur is added at vinification or bottling—along with careful cellar management, the gift of time pre-bottling is a magnificent stabilizer.
 
The wines are powerful, jaw-droppingly intense, with a backbone of racy acidity interwoven with a fleshy, sensual texture. These are low-intervention works of art made with care and confidence. On offer today, their Slatnik, Sivi and Rosso Sasa, which compose Sasa Radikon's "S" line, are all immediately accessible without sacrificing that trademark intensity, and a fantastic introduction to the Radikon lineup. 

Radikon, Slatnik, 2023 $46.99
"80% Chardonnay, 20% Tocai Friulano...While all of the vines are farmed and the wines vinified identically, the two lines are diffferent in several key ways. The "S" white wines are macerated for 2 weeks vs. 3 months; aged 1 year vs. 3-4 years (both in Slavonian oak botti)...organic Chard and Tocai bunches harvested by hand and destemmed. The berries are co-fermented with natural yeasts in oak vats with no sulfur or temperature control and a 10-14-day maceration The wine is aged in 3500-liter botti for a year and bottled without filtration and with a little sulfur. Slatnik is named for a nearby village." —Bowler Wines
 
Radikon, Sivi, 2023 $46.99
 "100% Pinot Grigio. [The S Range]...are still "orange" wines but less intensely so due to a shorter period of skin contact and aging. Otherwise, all of the wines are made identically: the Pinot Grigio is destemmed and fermented with natural yeasts in oak vat, with no temperature control and no sulfur. Maceration lasts for 10-14 days (versus 3 months for the 500ml wines). After a gentle pressing, the wine is put in 3500-liter Slavonian oak barrels for a year and a half on its lees; it is bottled without filtration and with only a miniscule amount of sulfur. This Pinot Grigio bottling was dubbed 'Sivi' starting in the 2016 vintage; it means 'gray' in Slovenian, in reference to the grayish-pink color of the grape's skin." —Bowler Wines

Radikon, RS (Rosso Sasa), 2023 $46.99
75% Merlot/25% Pignolo. The vines are planted on ponca, a compressed, flaky clay of marl and sandstone that is typical in this part of Friuli. They grow on a south-facing slope right by the winery; average around 30 years old; yield about 45 hl/ha; and are farmed organically and harvested by hand like all Radikon vineyards. The grapes are destemmed and spontaneously co-fermented in 25-hectoliter oak vats without the addition of yeasts, sulfur or temperature control. Maceration is 8-14 days with daily punchdowns. The wine is aged in 25-35-hectoliter botti for a year and bottled without fining or filtering and with a tiny amount of sulfur. "RS" is short for "Rosso Sasa", named for its creator, Sasa Radikon." —Bowler Wines