The 2010 Tocai Friulano Honea Vineyard, on the other hand, shows plenty of varietal character. It is a pretty, graceful wine laced with white peaches, flowers and mint. A long finish rounds things out nicely. In an amusing, ironic twist, producers in Italy can no longer use the name Tocai Friulano, while the successor denomination Friulano isn’t recognized yet by the TTB! Anticipated maturity: 2011-2014. I can’t think of anyone who has done more to promote Italian varieties in California than Steve Clifton with his Palmina label. I admit I was intrigued with these offerings, and came away deeply impressed with most of what I tasted. I am still not 100% convinced all of these grapes have significant potential in California, but most of them do. Some of the wines remain works in progress, including the Lagrein and Sangiovese Undici.Tel. (805) 735-2030; www.palminawines.com

The 2009 Tocai Friulano from the Honea Vineyard can easily pass for something from Northeast Italy. Wonderfully crisp apple skin, pear, and citrus notes jump from the glass of this steely, crisp, light-bodied wine, which would be the perfect dry white to have at any sushi bar/restaurant in the country. Drink it over the next year. As I have written in the past, no one in California (and probably in the New World) is doing what Steve Clifton has managed to do working with Italian varietals in selected micro-climates in the Santa Barbara area. From the get-go, his dry, crisp, light to medium-bodied whites were a revelation for California, and he continues to dial up the quality of the Italian varietal reds, even managing to come close to conquering the hardest varietal of all for anyone outside Northern Italy – Nebbiolo.