Stanislao (Stanko) Radikon, his wife Suzana and son Sasa met us at their winery in Oslavje in Venezia-Giulia, within sight of the Slovenian border.

(left to right: Stanko, Suzana, Sasa)

Sasa took us on a brief tour of their vineyards which surround the house, mostly planted to compressed shale, while Stanko and Suzana prepared lunch.  He pointed out that while they use several natural sprays and tinctures known to biodynamic growers, such as propolis, they are not ‘practicing biodynamic’ – but instead, strictly responsive, and wholly opposed to artificiality.  The Radikons are famous for their Ribolla, Tokai Friuliano, Pinot Grigio, and Merlot – I was surprised to note that they have also planted a rare local red varietal, Pignolo (whose name, meaning ‘fussy’, helps to explain its rarity), along with a tiny amount of Pinot Noir.

(Radikon’s Merlot vines)

In the early 1990s, remembering the style of his grandfather’s wines, Stanko moved from elaboration in stainless steel, which had become typical, to that of longer skin contact, ferments in tall wooden open-top puncheons, and years of ageing in large barrel.  1995 was his first official vintage of this ‘traditional’ approach, which also included a rejection of all chemicials and herbicides; 1996 was a year of terrible hail; 1997 is the inaugural year of Radikon as we know it today.  Their neighbors in Oslavje, including Princic and Castellada, soon followed stylistic suit, starting in the late ’90s; from one point of view, the current profile of ‘orange wine’ can be thought of as an Oslavjan phenomenon, spearheaded by the Radikons’ attentiveness to the past.

       (Radikon’s 2012 ‘Slatnik’ in barrel; the 2010 arrives at Telegraph this summer)

It took a bit of time, Sasa explained, to find the right degree of skin contact, before settling on 4 months as the general standard for the Radikon label; the wines are then aged in barrel for 4 years, and another 1 1/2 years in bottle, before release.  Replying to my question ‘why so long in barrel?’, he claimed that tasting showed them that their wines require a long evolution before becoming ‘winey’; the first year lends bold fruitiness but nothing else; in the second and third years, the wine comes off ‘closed’ and introverted, only fully developing its complexity during the fourth year.  (Starting with the 2009 vintage, Sasa has introduced an ‘S’ series of wines, including the Slatnik [above] and a Pinot Grigio, which sees only a few weeks of skin contact, and requires less time in the cellar; for him, these are ‘introductory’ wines, while remaining immensely delicious.)

Between a cellar tasting, lunch, and dinner, we tasted 21 different wines from Radikon, going back to 1997; my notes are filled with exclamation points and adjectives such as ‘citrus-oolong tea’, ‘mint/hay/salty pecan’, ‘pear and chamomile’, ‘dry buckwheat honey’, and much more.

. . . . . . .

Giorgio Clai’s winery is perched on an escarpment immediately across the Slovenian border in Croatia, just south of the Istrian city of Buje (‘the sentinel of Istria’), about 10 km from the Adriatic Sea.

Giorgio’s wines first caught my palate in 2011, and I quickly learned to bring in as many bottles as I could, whenever possible, as they are often in short supply.  (At Telegraph, we’ve offered his ‘Ottocento’ white and red.)  My appreciation of the wines was whetted by an air of mystery which surrounded them; outside of a few furtive blogposts, it was difficult to find clear information on the winery or its background – so I was especially thrilled for a chance to meet the man and visit the land.

(Giorgio! – in the Sveti Jakov single vineyard)

Originally from the Croatian village of Krasica (Buje), Giorgio moved to Trieste as a boy, and became a successful restaurant manager there (he still has many friends in the industry – and, as you might imagine, he’s a consummate host).  He inherited a vineyard and olive trees in the late 1980′s from his grandparents, and returned to Croatia annually to make wine for his friends and family, which ripened in him a plan to return for good, which he was finally able to do in the late 1990s – his first commercial vintage was 2001.  Since then, he’s worked on acquiring small local plots and converting them to natural/organic viticulture; today, he works 7 hectares of vines and 3 of olives.  His whites include Plavina, Moscato, Pinot Grigio and Chardonnay; the reds include Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and, signally, Refosco (known locally as Teran).  Similar to Radikon, he uses ’500′ and other Steiner-influenced applications, but says he needs to learn more before committing himself as a ‘biodynamic’ producer.

(Landscape facing the sea from Giorgio’s balcony)

While discussing his winegrowing methods, he often references those of his parents and grandparents – as well as Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma, which he recently read in translation, and admires for its ‘love and light’.  The chemical craze of the 1960s/’80s ‘completely passed him by’, he said, with the land officially in Tito’s Yugoslavia at the time.

Upon arrival, we raced around to 10 different vineyard plots, on foot and by car, including the sites for his ‘Brombanero’ and ‘Sveti Jakov’ bottlings, before heading to the cellar to taste.  While a new cellar is under construction, his current space is impossibly tiny – I counted 11 barrels total.

(Cellar at Clai; Giorgio lower left)

Between the cellar and lunch, we tasted about a dozen of his wines together.  The whites (Ottocento, Malvasia, and ‘Sveti Jakov’) see 10 days, 25 days, and 4 months of skin contact respectively; across the board, I found them to be ‘deeply aromatic’, ‘rich and profound’.  About the reds (Ottocento, Teran, ‘Brombanero’), I couldn’t stop writing my impressions! – from a ‘superb liveliness & violet-hued sunset vividness’, to a ‘brambly nose & a palate that’s finessed as hell’, to a ‘superb silky salty smokiness, amazing knit and elevated structure, with something of Gothic precision w/a touch of ornamentation’, I found them to be some of the finest wines in the zone, and certainly the most elegant expression of Teran I’d experienced.

We also enjoyed a zero-dosage spumante that he crafts for celebration (particularly good with wild Istrian oysters), and an absolutely killer olive oil.  I look forward to offering more of his wines in the months to come!

(Clai’s Ottocento, left; olive oil, right)

. . . . . . .

(More on Cotar to come…)

- Jeremy Quinn

We’re very excited to be part of Bon Appétit’s Grub Crawl in Chicago on June 8th!

The “Night Crawl” visits Logan Square – come eat, drink and party your way through Telegraph, our sister restaurant Reno, and our great friends and neighbors Billy Sunday and Jam! The fun begins with a kickoff party at the Logan Auditorium at 6pm.

Here’s what we’ll be serving on our leg of the crawl:

Pickled pork tartine with chèvre, shaved rhubarb & arugula
Pairing: 2011 Casa de Mouraz ‘Biotite’, vinho verde, Portugal

Scotch wild burgundy snails with sauce remoulade & pickled radicchio
Pairing: Chateau de l’Eperonniere 2012 Rose de Loire, France

Oysters on the half shell with citrus gel & charred leek
Pairing: 2011 Andrea Calek ‘Babiole’, Ardèche, France

More information and tickets are available on the Bon Appétit website: http://bagrubcrawl.com/event-days/chicago-night-crawl/.

It will be a great time – we hope to see you on Saturday!

1st: salad of baby artichoke, puy lentils, edwards ham, creamy coriander vinaigrette
paired with guirouilh 2011 jurançon sec

2nd: espelette marinated quail, pork sausage, smoked onion peppernada
paired with bordatto 2010 cider, irouleguy

3rd: cherry braised goat saddle, long grain rice, wheat grass
paired with ventura 2010 ‘caneiro’, ribeira sacra

$30 per person; $50 with pairings

Join us for a celebration of the cuisine of Venice!

Through Wednesday, May 29th, we’re offering:

1st course:
cicheti of white anchovy, grilled fennel and proscuitto, whipped butter, radish
paired with: menti vino frizzante

2nd course:
squid ink pasta, fresh garbanzo beans, sepia primavera salsiccia
paired with: domaine du bagnol rose

3rd course:
veal sweetbreads, wild asparagus, fresh ricotta risotto, horseradish sabayon
paired with: zind humbrecht dry muscat

4th course:
beef shoulder carpaccio, turnip pesto, chili aioli, cured egg yolk, pickled shallot
paired with: marco de bartoli ‘vecchio samperi’ marsala

A photo of each dish is available on our Facebook page.

$35 per person; $60 with pairings