2023 Dessimis Pinot Grigio, Vie di Romans

• Style: Mineral-driven, textured Pinot Grigio
• Taste: Honeyed pastry, Williams pear, yellow-stone minerality, lasting length
• Food: Shellfish, antipasti, vegetarian dishes, light Asian spice
• Occasion: Date night, gifting, aperitivo
• Serve: Chilled; natural cork; 13.5% ABV, bone-dry

In the Glass — Tasting Notes

This is a Pinot Grigio that demands attention. Unlike lighter, fruit-forward versions, the 2023 Dessimis offers genuine texture and grip—a wine built for the table rather casual sipping. Honeyed pastry notes open over bright Williams pear skin and a seam of yellow-stone minerality from Isonzo's glacial soils. On the palate it's rich and structured, with enough weight and acidity to carry you through a lasting finish. This is what happens when a grower picks late, yields sparingly, and gives the wine time to mature: depth you rarely find in this grape.

The Winery — Vie di Romans

Gianfranco Gallo's 50-hectare estate sits in the heart of Isonzo, where an Adriatic cool east wind and stony, free-draining terrain create ideal conditions for slow ripening and flavour concentration. The Dessimis vineyard—two nine-hectare parcels in Mariano del Friuli—occupies shallow, gravel-rich soil laced with iron and aluminium oxides; vines average 23 years old. Fermentation ran cool for nearly four weeks before the wine spent nine months resting on its lees in 20% new oak, adding textural richness without dominating the fruit. The 2023 vintage proved demanding—extreme cold, heavy rain and hail, then record heat—yet Gallo's methods extracted wines with distinct character and intensity. At 13.5% ABV and bone-dry, this embodies the producer's philosophy: late picking and low yields yield single vineyard wines of great intensity and richness, released a year later than usual to allow full maturation.

At Your Table — Food Pairing & Serving

Drink it with shellfish—grilled shrimp, scallops, or fritto misto—or set it beside antipasti and charcuterie. The acidity cuts through rich preparations, and the stone-fruit character plays beautifully with basil and lemon. Vegan and vegetarian friendly, it pairs equally well with white fish, oily fish, salads and light dishes. Perfect for date nights, gifting, or an aperitivo moment. Sealed with natural cork. Falstaff awarded it 93 points; James Suckling and Raffaele Vecchione both scored in the 90s. At 13.5% ABV, this sits comfortably alongside the rest of our Pinot Grigio & Pinot Gris selection, but it punches well above the category's usual weight. Worth exploring further in our Italian whites collection.