Custoza d.o.c.
Custoza is a white wine with a delicate, floral and fruity bouquet with slightly aromatic notes. Marked by a strong territorial connotation, it is easily recognizable by its freshness, drinkability and flavour.
Custoza DOC also has considerable potential for longevity and lends itself to good aging: with time, in fact, the mineral characters typical of the morainic soils that characterize the production area emerge, and enrich it with complexity and elegance.
It is unique and inimitable because it is made from a blend of indigenous grapes.
According to the regulations, Custoza DOC must be made, with a minimum of 70 percent, of three of the following grape varieties: Garganega, Trebbianello (a local biotype of Friulan Tocai, corresponding to the French Sauvignonasse), Trebbiano, and Bianca Fernanda (a local clone of Cortese). Each of these may not exceed 45 percent.
The product regulations also allows the use of other grape varieties up to a total of 30 percent, such as Malvasia, Riesling (Italian Riesling and/or Rhine Riesling), Pinot bianco, Chardonnay and Incrocio Manzoni 6.013.
Viticulture in the Custoza area is unrepeatable of its kind, and the blend of grapes tells the story of the culture of the area. In fact, the municipalities of the appellation were an area of livestock breeding and, above all, of trade in the products that came from it; merchants who stopped here often used the rooted vines native to their places of origin as barter goods. It is precisely these exchanges that gave rise to the varieties of Custoza and the typical heterogeneity of its viticulture.
The peculiarity of the Custoza DOC blend is its strength: the blend of several grape varieties allows the grapes to complement each other even in difficult vintages and give the wine greater complexity, as well as allowing for a more varied expression of the personality of the producers and individual grapes.
Production per hectare is 130 quintals per hectare for Custoza doc and 120 quintals per hectare for Superiore.
The types produced are Custoza, Custoza Superiore, Custoza Riserva (type introduced in 2019), Custoza Spumante and Custoza Passito.
Custoza DOC has a straw yellow colour, sometimes with green or golden reflections. On the nose, the scents are delicately fruity (crisp white and yellow fruit) and floral, slightly aromatic, with very subtle hints of meadow grasses and sometimes saffron; spicy and ripe fruit notes increase with age. The flavour is savoury, delicately soft, with just the right body.
