Dario Princic

Resilience

The Azienda Agricola Dario Princic is situated in the Italian Friuli region, on the Italian-Slovenian border in the village of Oslavia. The area has been quite unfortunate historically and got basically abandoned after the First World War. Dario and a couple of his fellow neighbouring winemakers started with natural winemaking in the late 1980’s and refused to treat their vines with chemicals. They established “skin contact wines”, as they call it what many understand as “orange wines”, in Italy where the kind had barely any precedent.

For quite a few years his wines had hard time in selling but he was determined and kept producing the way he wanted and liked until finally interest grew. Although it was hard to sell in the beginning, they’ve slowly gained a great reputation in the region. Nowadays he is one of the most known names in the natural wine world and he is also an important member of ‘Vini Veri’ association.

Orange Wines

Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio, Tocai Friulano (Jakot) and Chardonnay are the white grape varieties that are used for his orange wines.

If it wasn’t already enough of the complications, some more trouble came along regarding the Tocai Friulano grape variety. The Hungarian “Tokaj” wine region, after decades of battle, has claimed and won exclusivity for the word “tokaj/tokaji”tocai/and the like…”. That’s when Dario and again his neighbours started calling their wine made from this grape “jakot”. 

Dario also makes remarkable red wines as well out of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. The monovarietal Cabernet Sauvignon is a late harvest, super complex, and spent 10 (!!!) years in the barrel!