Refosco

Refosco is the signature dark red of north-east Italy's Friuli-Venezia Giulia, most often the variety Refosco dal Peduncolo Rosso — literally "Refosco of the red stalk", named for the crimson stem that holds its clusters to the vine. It yields a deeply coloured, violet-tinged wine with bracing acidity, firm tannin and flavours of dark wild berry, plum and blackberry, closing on a characteristic herbal, almond-bitter note. Indigenous to the lands where Italy, Slovenia and Croatia meet, it is an old and rustic variety long made as an everyday country red, now increasingly bottled as a serious, age-worthy wine. Tangy, savoury and food-friendly, it is the benchmark native red of Friuli.