Friulano

Friulano is the signature white of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, in Italy's north-east corner, and its name is the result of a legal defeat. It was called Tocai Friulano for centuries until Hungary successfully argued that the word Tokaj belonged to its own sweet wine region, and from 2007 Italian producers had to drop it. The grape is unrelated to anything grown in Tokaj, but the ruling stood.

DNA analysis produced a second surprise: Friulano turned out to be identical to Sauvignonasse, a minor French variety also grown in Chile, where it was for years mistaken for Sauvignon Blanc and planted alongside it.

The wine bears no resemblance to Sauvignon Blanc. It is medium-bodied and quietly textured, with pear, white peach and field flowers, a distinct note of bitter almond on the finish, and a savoury, faintly saline quality on the better sites. Acidity is moderate rather than sharp. It is a wine of texture rather than aroma, which is precisely why it suits the Friulian table.

The best examples come from the Collio and Colli Orientali, where marl-and-sandstone soils known locally as ponca give real mineral definition. Skin-contact versions are common in the same hills, deepening the colour towards amber and adding tannic grip, dried herbs and orchard fruit.

In Friuli it is drunk with prosciutto di San Daniele as a matter of course, and the pairing is close to perfect: the almond bitterness and the salt of the ham work against each other in a way that neither achieves alone.