I normally don’t drink white wines in winter, largely because I am typically in red meat, duck, long-stewed nirvana at the time. Winter is for big, earthy bold reds you can drink with such meals, or even by themselves while reading in front of a fire. Guess if I ate more chicken or quail or pheasant it’d be different.

Well one of these whites from Friuli, in Northern Italy east of Venice, may well make me go chase more ringnecks or partridges: The Marco Felluga 2003 Tocai Friulano. This is a golden, slightly heavy white that reminds me of a refined Chardonnay — this wine has definitely gone through malolactic fermentation, which has softened its edges and given the wine that “buttery” feel noted so often with Chardonnay.

I was a little nervous at first given the “Tocai” name, which I have always associated with sweet wines from either Lodi or Hungary. Not this wine. But the grape does give the wine its wonderful floral aroma, vaguely like that of Beames de Venise. Its alcohol content is a manageable 13 percent. One note, however: Let this wine sit out for a while when you take it out of the fridge. It’s best cool, not cold.

Bottom line: At $16.50 a bottle over at Fosco’s Fine Italian Market in Roseville, I’d buy this one again. Very happy with it.

The second wine, a Tenuta Villanova 2002 Sauvignon, wasn’t right for the season. Don’t get me wrong, I like this wine a lot, especially at $13, but it’s a wine for summer and wants to be drunk with striped bass or grilled shrimp. Like the Marco Felluga, it has an alochol content of 13 percent. I’m feeling the Adriatic in this wine, where I get more of an inland sense with the Marco Felluga. They are both inland, by the way, but the Isonzo is slightly closer to the sea. Isonzo…I have not heard that name in years, when I was studying military history in school; the river was the site of a ferocious battle between the Italians and the Austro-Hungarian Empire during World War I, probably the nastiest combat the Italians saw during that conflict.

Bottom line: Buy this wine in May, you won’t be disappointed.

UPDATE: They have an excellent roundup of all kinds of Friuli whites over at Fork & Bottle. Lots of other Tocai Friulano and a few other Sauvignon Blancs, too.