Master of the Carso: Sandi Skerk - Ograde 2012

Sandi Skerk must have one of the most idyllically sited vineyards in Friuli, if not the world. Grassed terraces curve gently around the contours of the Carso hills, and lead your eye out towards the Adriatic coast. I'm profoundly happy to be standing by h

 Every week, I select an orange wine (a white wine made with extended skin contact) that grabbed my attention. View the whole series here.

Sandi Skerk must have one of the most idyllically sited vineyards in Friuli, if not the world. Grassed terraces curve gently around the contours of the Carso hills, and lead your eye out towards the Adriatic coast. I'm profoundly happy to be standing by his albarello-pruned Vitovska vines, almost four years to the day after a previous eye-opening visit in 2011. Sandi is of course the same as ever – gentle, rather shy, yet somehow dogmatic and politely forceful when he needs to be.

When I raise the issue of nomenclature, Skerk isn't keen on the term “orange wine”, saying disarmingly “my wine isn't orange – and it doesn't get its colour from the skin maceration, rather from the Pinot Grigio which has a red hue anyway”. For Skerk, the term feels more appropriate for the super long macerated Ribolla Giallas from producers like Radikon, Dario Prinčič or J…