{"title":"Mitja Sirk","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe wine world is prone to sentimentalizing heritage, but Mitja Sirk is doing something far more calculated in the hills of Cormons, Friuli-Venezia Giulia. While his family name is tied to the high end hospitality of their Michelin starred restaurant and hotel, La Subida, Mitja has largely ignored the distractions of the hospitality industry to fixate on a single, often misunderstood grape called Friulano. His approach is a sharp, intentional pivot away from the cluttered identity of Friulian wine. By removing any distractions he has achieved a clarity that borders on the clinical.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHis education was an enviable gauntlet of industry heavyweights. After a childhood spent under the wing of Josko Gravner, making his first wine at age 11 in a gifted amphora, Mitja refused to settle for the provincialism of local enology schools. Instead, he sought out the masters of precision like Conterno, Roulot, and Dujac. These experiences were an exercise in stripping away the unnecessary. He eventually traded the romanticized grit of extended skin contact and clay vessels for the unforgiving transparency of stainless steel. In his view, there is no secret recipe, only the relentless pursuit of small, daily details that separate a good wine from a definitive one.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe region itself, a horseshoe of hills known as Collio, sits at a restless intersection of Italian, Slavic, and Austrian history. The landscape is objectively stunning, caught between the Julian Alps and the Adriatic, but its viticultural history has been a mess of identity crises. Over the decades, Friuli has tried on various masks, imitating the crispness of Germany, the oak of Burgundy, or the orange wines of Georgia. Mitja has opted out of this confusion. By focusing on the native Friulano, he is successfully attempting to produce the most honest and transparent  expression of the region.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis honesty begins in the soil; the famous prehistoric formation of compacted marl and sandstone known as Ponca. This unique geology provides a structural backbone and mineral extract to the delicate Friulano fruit that it simply cannot find elsewhere. Shunning pesticides and other synthetic agricultural chemicals and hunting for old vines, some dating back to the 1960s, are two of the ways he  ensures his fruit carries the full weight of the hills. By employing traditional trellising like the local cappuccino style and waiting for true physiological ripeness, he ensures the grapes are an exact reflection of the region before they ever reach the cellar.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOnce there, Mitja abandons the rustic trend of skin contact for a process that is unapologetically precise. This shift highlights his remarkable talent and his pursuit of  technical clarity over trendy artifice. His method involves gentle pressing and a cold soak to preserve primary aromatics, followed by fermentation in stainless steel under strict temperature control. By utilizing native yeasts and keeping the wine on fine lees with light batonnage, he navigates a technical tightrope to produce a wine of crystalline focus. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOne of the best parts of our job is to get behind exceptional young winemakers and introduce their wines to you. What we see in these early vintages is a remarkable talent shunning the labels of the past generation. Mitja is making wines that are crystalline, focused, and startlingly precise. These wines are a sophisticated and delicious distillation of Friuli's terroir, suggesting that the most compelling path for a young winemaker is to look past the pressure of being different and instead focus entirely on being precise. We can’t wait to see where he goes from here, but one thing is for sure, when gen pop catches on, these will become harder to find. \u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"mitja-sirk-bianco-2024-750ml","title":"Mitja Sirk Vino Bianco Europeo Bianco de Mitja 2024","description":"\u003cp\u003e100% Friulano coming from vineyards on both the Friulian and Slovenian sides of the Collio, called “Plessiva” and “Mernicco”, in addition to purchased fruit from trusted growers with likeminded cultivation methods. On average, vines are 25-35 years in age. Pressed, fermented spontaneously in stainless; aging on fine lees until bottling in May.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Grand Cru Selections [GCS]","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42117122621475,"sku":"SF-1-GCS--040226-23","price":35.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0044\/1208\/0163\/files\/Bottle-of-Mitja-Sirk-Vino-Bianco-Europeo-Bianco-de-Mitja-2024-White-Wine-Flatiron-SF.jpg?v=1776293692"},{"product_id":"mitja-sirk-collio-bianco-ca-savorgnan-2023-750ml","title":"Mitja Sirk Collio Bianco Ca'Savorgnan 2023","description":"\u003cp\u003e100% Friulano from 95 year old vines (with a parcel replanted in 2019) in a single vineyard, “Ca’ Savorgnan” tucked in the hillside of Cormons, a truly “Mediterranean” site that Mitja prefers to farm wild with grasses and spontaneous herbs; spontaneous fermentation and aging in new cask on fine lees until bottling in May; bottle aging for one year\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Grand Cru Selections [GCS]","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42117122654243,"sku":"SF-1-GCS--040226-24","price":69.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0044\/1208\/0163\/files\/Bottle-of-Mitja-Sirk-Collio-Bianco-CaSavorgnan-2023-White-Wine-Flatiron-SF.jpg?v=1776293693"},{"product_id":"mitja-sirk-venezia-giulia-meden-2023-750ml","title":"Mitja Sirk Friuli-Venezia Giulia Friulano Meden 2023","description":"\u003cp\u003e100% Friulano from 60 year old vines in a single vineyard with incredible ponca lying just under the surface in the hills of Lonzano, the southern part of Dolegna del Collio. The “Meden” vineyard has eastern exposure and is highly influenced by the cooling effects of the mountains, lending to a more delicate, floral wine; spontaneous fermentation and aging in used tonneau on fine lees until bottling in May; bottle aging for one year.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Grand Cru Selections [GCS]","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42117122687011,"sku":"SF-1-GCS--040226-25","price":69.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0044\/1208\/0163\/files\/Bottle-of-Mitja-Sirk-Friuli-Venezia-Giulia-Friulano-Meden-2023-White-Wine-Flatiron-SF.jpg?v=1776293694"}],"url":"https:\/\/sf.flatiron-wines.com\/collections\/mitja-sirk.oembed","provider":"Flatiron SF","version":"1.0","type":"link"}