Bottled in July 2015 and released in Sept 2018, the 2013 Calabrone is a smart and creative blend of Refosco (70%), Schioppettino (10%), Pignolo (10%) and Merlot (10%). It opens to dark intensity and gorgeous notes of smoke and tar. It shows an excellent quality of ripe and plummy fruit. It's lean and mean in the mouth, not too heavy, delivering sweet cherry notes that are finely wrapped in savory tobacco. The Calabrone is a full and complete wine, and worthy of any celebration that features a lamb on the spit.

You feel the vintage heat more in the 2012 Calabrone. I wouldn't say it's jammy, but there is that blackberry sweetness and stickiness that conjures up a sweltering summer. This wine shows dark fruit, black tar and spice and that signature note of cigar tobacco we've seen in other editions of this Refosco, Schioppettino, Pignolo and Merlot blend. It's sweeter in the mouth too. I prefer the 2013 vintage. Still, the 2012 Calabrone is a nice wine for barbecued ribs.

The 2011 Calabrone is a celebrated blend of mostly Refosco (70%) with Schioppettino, Pignolo and Merlot. A portion of the grapes are air-dried before being pressed for fermentation and this process helps to increase the overall intensity and depth. This is a beautiful red wine with a seamless presentation of aromas that spans from sweet blackberry jam to exotic spice and freshly ground cinnamon. Those rich fruit flavors give the wine ample softness in terms of texture and sweetness in terms of flavor.

The spectacular 2009 Calabrone puts an international face on a motley collection of indigenous grapes. Calabrone means “hornet” in Italian and this blend of 70% Refosco, 10% Schioppettino, 10% Pignolo and 10% Merlot leaves its sting in a good way. Some of the grapes (Refosco and Schioppettino) are air-dried for one month and all varieties are aged separately in new French oak from 18 to 24 months. Sweet blackberry and prune open the bouquet with deep spice and tobacco. There’s a chewy note of jammy fruit on the close. The workmanship is impressive here. Drink: 2015-2022. A rock star winery with international pedigree (proprietors are culinary celebrities Joe and Lidia Bastianich), Bastianich has played an important role in raising the profile of quality Friuli wines around the world. Their offerings are always impeccably made and equal emphasis is placed on both reds and whites. Importer: Dark Star Imports, www.darkstarimports.com

In the 2007 Calabrone, two of the grapes in this blend of Refosco, Schioppettino, Pignolo and Merlot go through appassimento. They see two months of air-drying, with a resulting seven to eight grams per liter of residual sugar, but strangely you don't taste it. This is a super wine—spicy and succulent—that calls for something on the grill. This vintage is big and generous. It's another full and complete rendition of Bastianich's super Friuli blend.