Sergio Cuffolo
L”Oro Rosso” in Attimis
22Dec2021
The acronym stands for Federazione Italiana Vignaioli Indipendenti or Italian Federation of Independent Winegrowers. It brings together families that for generations or for a few decades, have been passionately dedicated to this popular drink. What looks like a simple glass of wine contains research, dedication, love of one’s land.
There are those who have 100-year-old vines that do not produce large quantities of grapes but are full of history. There are vineyards planted on steep terrain, where the sun and the thermal inversion give different characteristics to the same type of grape. What I have noticed is that every winemaker tends to transmit his way of being to his wine.
We come across the organic wine of Aquila del Torre which contains all the biodiversity of the land that surrounds it. One wine, the Sauvignon blanc, is particularly flavourful and fresh, thanks to the land that, millions of years ago, was the bottom of the sea.
Or there is the Ramandolo of Anna Berra. Ramandolo, which I like very much, is a wine I have always sipped at the end of the meal. It’s a sweet wine, and I’ve always accompanied it with desserts. On Saturday instead, I was advised to try it with a cheese, in particular with the straw cheese from the Latteria di Aviano. An unusual combination for me, but the not too soft cheese, and the slightly liqueur-like consistency of the wine, proved to be a winning combination.
I saw the eyes of the winemaker shine when he told me about the efforts, the passion that he employs day after day in the care of the vines.
The same passion was told to me by Fabio Bessich who continues the tradition founded by Antonio in 1959. Located on a terrain that is less well-known to me for the production of wine, that of the pebble beds of fluvial origin and therefore particularly gravelly and stony, which gives the wine a particular flavour and a significant persistence in taste.
The Borgo delle Oche winery in the same area, uses organic products that give the wines a sensation of particular genuineness; their wines are the fruit of man’s work, but also of the effect of the wind and the sun, the contribution of water and of the land.
Diametrically on the opposite side, there is Lis Fadis, a Collio winery that has adopted the tradition of growing vines surrounded by ancient olive trees, and ancient varieties of fruit trees. A tradition that is naturally found in wines obtained from ancient biotopes that open up to the palate in a thousand nuances with a consistency and structure reminiscent of red grapes of wine regions that are far more renowned.
Different wines, wines that although born from the same family of grapes, are so particular and different from each other. A diversity desired by each winemaker because the beauty of wine lies in its personality, that manifests itself through the cultivation of the plants, in the way of perfecting the wine in the barrels, in the personal taste of the winemaker in the creation of grape varietals. Because making a standardised wine does not belong in this region: small yes but that one containing a variety of territories, characters, traditions.
Find out about the ideas and offers for this experience in Friuli Venezia Giulia
Sergio Cuffolo
Miriam Ferrarin
Sara Pugnale
Sabrina Pellizon
