The white wines of northeastern Italy have never been on the radar for most Americans. Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate only began covering this area in the past year, thanks to the addition of Italian critic Antonio Galloni to his staff. Yet this area produces some of the world’s finest white wines. The best of these wines are made in very small quantities and are quite expensive and difficult to get ahold of here in the U.S. but as more importers seek out the nooks and crannies of the wine world, we are slowly beginning to see more wines from Friuli than the ubiquitous Pinot Grigio.

This month’s edition of Wine Blogging Wednesday, the blogosphere’s virtual wine tasting event focused on the white wines of Friuli, a theme chosen by the hosts Jack and Joanne of Fork & Bottle. Thanks both to the interest and the quantity of the participants (over 40) this month’s roundup is a veritable treasure trove of reviews of the region’s wines. Frankly there aren’t many places on the web where you can find so much valuable info about these wines, so if you have any interest, I suggest you take a look at the various reviews.

In other Wine Blogging Wednesday news, the 42nd Edition has been announced and it will be hosted by Andrew Barrow of Spittoon.Biz, who has selected an oddball theme for the February edition: 7 Words. On February 13th, Participants are asked to craft grammatically correct tasting notes for their wine that contain no more, no less than seven words. The truly creative might be able to even make it a haiku.

Finally, Wine Blogging Wednesday is in search of a new logo. Specifically, a contest is on to design a new one. More details can be found at the WBW site. The deadline is March 31st.