Russiz Superiore, 2017 Cabernet Franc

No.29 | What's In My Glass

Earlier this week I read in The Wine Economist’s weekly blog post that 2024 marks the 60th anniversary of the Collio DOC, which jogged my memory that I still had one bottle of the Russiz Superiore 2017 Cabernet Franc remaining in my cellar. I did a video on this wine back in February 2021, so with three additional years in bottle, this seemed as good a time as any to check in on how this wine has evolved over time.

Located in the northeastern part of Italy in Friuli-Venezia-Giulia and sharing its eastern border with Slovenia, Collio is best known as a white wine producing region, with only about 15% of the region's production being red wines. There is currently around 37 hectares of Cabernet Franc vines planted in the region, but surprisingly it is the second most planted red variety (after Merlot with about 66ha) and represents around 4% of the entire DOC’s production. While Cabernet Franc isn’t native to Italy, it is considered a “traditional” variety of Collio with a long history in…