From: Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy
Blend: 80% Chardonnay, 20% Sauvignon Blanc
This wine. 80% Chardonnay/20% Sauvignon Blanc. Radikon's 750ml bottlings, known informally as the "S" line, are Sasa Radikon's addition to his dad Stanko's original 500ml line: they 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 Chardonnay and Sauvignon are destemmed, crushed and co-fermented with natural yeasts in oak vat, with no temperature control and no sulfur. Maceration lasts for 10-14 days (versus 2.5-3 months for the flagship wines). After a gentle pressing, the wine is put in 6000-liter Friulian-made French oak botti for a year on its lees; it is bottled with a tiny amount of sulfur and without filtration and then aged in bottle for a year before release. Slatnik is named for a nearby village.
About Radikon. Stanko Radikon was a true icon of both the traditional wines and grapes of Friuli and of uncompromising, natural winemaking. The type of winemaking that Stanko begin implementing in 1995 wasn't new, it was actually a return to how his grandfather made wine.
Using extended macerations, or skin contact, with white grapes is now a global trend known to many as ""orange wine"", but this is indeed the tradition in certain regions including the Italian-Slovenian borderlands of Friuli. It was only in the second half of the 20th century that the region focused on more ""international"" styled wines, without skin contact and with fining and filtration.
After working alongside his father for a few years, Stanko abandoned this style, realizing that the local grapes benefited greatly from the traditional methods of his region. He also began bottling everything in specially designed 500ml and 1 liter bottles, as he preferred these for both serving and aging. This uncompromising approach was a tough sell as far as marketing is concerned, but Stanko didn't care.
His stubborn insistence on tradition and quality eventually paid off, and his wines and his estate are now revered around the world. Sadly Stanko succumbed to cancer in 2016 at the age of 62. His children, led by his son Saša, have taken the reigns and are continuing his legacy.
Saša has been deeply involved in the farming and winemaking for over a decade, and he is devoted to his father's philosophy. That said he is his own person, thoughtful and serious minded but also practical and, in the right mood quite funny.
