For this edition of NWR’s recurring feature on amazing overlooked bottles on the best wine lists, we spoke with Bobby Stuckey, Master Sommelier and founder of the Frasca Hospitality Group. The group includes the Michelin-starred Frasca in Boulder, which just celebrated its 20th anniversary; wine bar Sunday Vinyl and neighboring restaurant Tavernetta at Union Station in Denver; Pizzeria Alberico, Frasca’s casual neighbor in Boulder; and the just-opened Osteria Alberico in South Denver. Before launching Frasca in 2004 with chef Lachlan Mackinnon-Patterson (with whom he also runs the wine label Scarpetta), Stuckey was the wine director at The French Laundry in Yountville, California, under world-renowned chef Thomas Keller.

If Frasca is unique in its focus on the food and wine of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, that was especially true at its founding in 2004, when micro-regional restaurants were practically unheard of in American fine dining, much less in Denver. Through Frasca’s wine list, Stuckey and his sommelier team have consistently championed small producers from northeastern Italy. Below, Stuckey chooses some favorites from the region’s ranks of lesser-known producers. (All of the figures reflect the restaurant’s current pricing.) 

2021 Murva Chardonnay “Paladis” Friuli Isonzo ($122)

The whole world of wine right now only wants autochthonous, or indigenous. There are these varieties that, in Italy, people call “international”—like Cab, Merlot, Chardonnay, and Sauvignon Blanc. I have a different term. I call them “historical,” because Chardonnay, Cabernet Franc, and Merlot have been part of the fabric of Friuli for over 250 years. A lot of the Sauvignon Blanc in the Loire were cuttings that came from Friuli, post-phylloxera. That's how historical these varieties are.

Alberto Pelos is a winemaker who worked at [noted Friulian white wine producer] Vie di Romans for, I think, almost 15 years. Now he’s got his own project: single-vineyard Chardonnay, and it tastes like great Meursault. It's fantastic. Great texture, from old-vine plantings in Isonzo. It is one of the hot things in Italy right now. This is 2021, so it's a baby. It’s like Puligny-Montrachet—it's going to go 20 years.

2021 Petrussa Schioppettino Friuli Colli Orientali ($90)

It’s a cool-climate red. It kind of drinks like cool-climate Syrah. A little lighter body, but it has that kind of peppery note to it. It’s so ethereal. The cooler the vintage, the more exciting the Schioppettino. We hear about Ronchi di Cialla a lot, and that's really the iconic producer that saved this variety. But Petrussa is one to watch. The Ronchi di Cialla family is in a village called Cialla, and right below that is Prepotto, and that's where Petrussa is. It is a cool valley. I've done a lot of spring bike rides there, where my fingers got very cold. It's awesome for Schioppettino. Whenever you see cooler vintages there, it’s really exciting: the aromatics get more heightened. It's really the opposite of other red wines. 

2021 Dalia Maris “R Bianco” Friuli Colli Orientali ($151)

This is the project of Giampaolo Venica, of [family-owned benchmark producer] Venica & Venica. It's old-vine Friulano. Giampaolo and I have been meditating about this for a decade: Friulano is a medium-acid variety—that's a fact—so what would happen if it was treated more like great white Hermitage? No one was doing that. No one was going to full ripeness. 

So when his harvest was done, Giampaolo started driving across Italy into Northern Rhône, and working with Jean-Louis Chave and studying how he makes his white Rhônes. Dalia Maris Friulano is put in old Chave barrels that Giampaolo got from Jean-Louis. It's taking Friulano and pushing it to the maximum. Friulano with texture and richness. It's really cool. And now you're starting to hear about some other producers wanting to try to do this, too.hese wines show the smoke, the meat, the sauvage of Cornas, and then with age they integrate, become more elegant, and shed the rusticity of youth. The 2000 is very pleasing at the moment. We also have the 1996, which is fun, too, just more of a thinker. It shows more tension—a little bit less fruit, and more earth and minerals.