Ronchi di Cialla RONCHI DI CIALLA Friuli Colli Orientali Friulano 2020

Description

Fiulano dei Ronchi di Cialla is a product with a Tocai grape. On the nose candied lemon and cooked green pear.
Full-bodied, persistent, with a dense and layered body on the palate. It ends with a typical bitter almond note

Ronchi Di Cialla, which means “hills of Cialla”, is located in a small valley surrounded by woods of chestnut, oak and wild cherry trees in the Friuli Colli Orientali DOC. Its story begins in 1970 when Paolo and Dina Rapuzzi bought a property here in order to cultivate local vines. At the time they made their living selling Olivetti typewriters, but they found a property for sale near the border with Yugoslavia, abandoned since the Iron Curtain fell twenty-five years earlier.

In the 1960s, French grape varieties such as Merlot, Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Grigio, introduced during the Napoleonic wars, had become the mainstay of Friulian viticulture, but Paolo and Dina wanted to focus exclusively on local grapes. Their research suggested that Verduzzo, Picolit, Ribolla Gialla, Refosco dal Peduncolo Rosso and Schioppettino were traditionally the most popular grape varieties. The Schioppettino in particular was an interesting case: the only traces were found in ancient manuscripts and in the memory of the elderly, and it was officially considered extinct. Paolo and Dina Rapuzzi managed to find around 70 surviving vines in the valley and nearby, which allowed them to propagate a whole new vineyard and resurrect the Schioppettino on the verge of extinction.

It is illegal to grow extinct and therefore unapproved grape varieties in Italy, therefore, having saved Schioppettino from near extinction alone, their next obstacle was to convince the authorities that they should be allowed to plant it! In 1976 Paolo and Dina won the prestigious Risit D’Aur award for their work in preserving this ancient variety.

Ronchi Di Cialla is certified biodiversity friendly by the World Biodiversity Association, and remains committed to using natural practices with minimal interference, having been one of the first wine producers to adopt integrated agriculture with low environmental impact. Today the winery is managed by the sons Pierpaolo and Ivan, who are also active entomologists with regular publications in European scientific journals.