Why it matters
The producer
Oslavia is a hamlet at the edge of Gorizia where the Slovenian border runs close enough to shape the farming history. Radikon is based there, on approximately eighteen hectares of steep slopes planted to Ribolla Gialla, Chardonnay, Tocai Friulano, and Sauvignon Blanc. The family has held land in this place since at least 1861, when a deed of sale registered their presence. Stanko Radikon made the first estate bottling in 1980. His son Saša now runs the domaine.
Radikon was among the producers who revived Friuli's tradition of macerating white grapes on their skins, producing wines with amber colour, tannin grip, and the capacity to age that conventional white winemaking had largely abandoned. The long-macerated wines carry no added sulphites. The shorter-macerated S line, launched by Saša in 2009, receives a small addition because its ten-day macerations need it.
Place and vineyards
Where the wines begin
Oslavia sits in the western edge of Collio, where the Italian and Slovenian sides of this borderland share the same Eocene soils and the same tradition of extended skin contact on white grapes. The proximity of the border is not incidental: Friuli's amber-wine heritage predates the political division that ran through this landscape, and Oslavia was one of the villages where that tradition survived long enough to be revived. Steep slopes face south and southwest, giving the vines extended sun exposure during the growing season and helping grapes reach full ripeness before the harvest.
In the cellar
Vineyards and cellar
The approximately eighteen hectares adjoin the winery, planted on steep marl slopes. The estate keeps yields low and harvests by hand, picking only at full ripeness. The vine management foregoes chemical additives and minimises treatments, working from the principle that healthy soil produces grapes that need less correction in the cellar.
Fermentation happens with the grape skins remaining in the must. The long-macerated wines spend three months on their skins before pressing, then age in barrel before extended bottle ageing brings balance and stability. The S line wines macerate for roughly ten days. Neither line is fined or filtered in ways that would strip the tannin and colour the maceration builds in.
Wines to know
The range in view
The range divides into two lines. The flagship wines, including Ribolla Gialla, Oslavje, Jakot, and RS21, spend three months macerating on their skins and carry no added sulphites. They are bottled in one-litre and half-litre formats, practical sizes for wines that benefit from being finished over several days. Oslavje is a white wine from Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc with a yellow-orange colour, stone fruit and dried-fruit character, and a mineral finish that comes from the marl soils. RS21 is the red wine in the range, made from Merlot under the Venezia Giulia appellation.
The S line, Slatnik and Sivi Pinot Grigio, uses shorter macerations of about ten days. Slatnik blends 80% Chardonnay with 20% Tocai Friulano. The shorter skin contact gives these wines amber colour and some tannin without the full tannin weight of the three-month wines, and the small SO2 addition stabilises them for the shorter maceration time.
A useful way in
A bottle to begin with
Slatnik is the right bottle to start with. The 2022 is 80% Chardonnay and 20% Tocai Friulano, macerated on the skins for eight days. The colour is amber, and the nose combines incense, dried flowers, tangerine, and mint, an aromatic profile that announces skin contact clearly. On the palate, tropical melon and citrus come forward alongside juicy acidity, with a long finish of candied grapefruit and spice. It is the S line wine Saša launched in 2009 to give the range an entry point with some of the maceration character but a lighter tannin weight than the three-month wines demand.