Tenuta Villanova: Return to the future

This estate has ancient roots in the upper Isonzo River area (it is probably one of the oldest in Italy having been founded in 1499) and has always produced wine. Its current owner, the Bennati family, acquired it in 1932. Given its long history, their wines tended to be static but this was interrupted by Paolo Cora when he became managing director in the mid-1990s and won the estate some important recognitions. After he left the estate continued to make fine wines but other wineries were making greater advances and so it returned to the ranks of solid and reliable estates producing wines with an excellent quality/price ratio but without being outstanding.

I recently met with members of the estate’s staff, first among them winery director Alberto Grossi, as well as the owners. They all had a clear vision of where they wanted to go and were full of enthusiasm to restore the estate historic position. The estate has 130 hectares of vineyards, around 100 of which are in the alluvial plain of the Isonzo River while the rest are in Collio. These are two diverse areas with the first having a soil of soft sedimentary rock and pebbles and the latter a clay one rich in calcium. However, this diversity has created an enormous potential which should be ready in the bottle in a few years’ time. Today the atmosphere in the winery is youthful and full of expectations under the supervision of Sara Nadalutti,, a young, ‘in-house’ enologist who gained her experience at the winery under her predecessor, Massimiliano Cattarin, and, above all, benefitted from the advice of Professor Giovanni Bigot, a very great professional.

Among the wines I liked were the Collio Friulano from the estate’s top Ronco Cucco lines and the Picolit, in the same line. Their Ribolla Gialla still needs some work to define its precise personality, something which has already been achieved with their Malvasia, an excellent expression of the land.

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