Carso

Styles

Principal grape varieties

Terroir

• The karst territory is characterized by rocky, karstic landforms, with squat rises, low hills, outcropping rocks and depressions called dolines, some of considerable size.
• Elevations range from sea level to just over 650 metres, with 73% of the area typically lying between 100 and 400 metres of altitude.
• The soils of the plateau consist of clayey or silty-clay red earths that cover the limestone substrate even to a depth of just a few centimetres, with a cultivable layer averaging 20-25 cm.
• In the south-central part of the territory, from the edge of the Trieste Karst down to the coast, the rocky substrate has a marl-sandstone lithology belonging to the Eocene flysch, of erosive type.
• The climate lies in a transitional zone between Mediterranean and pre-Alpine continental, with average annual temperatures on the karst plateau around 12.5°C and rainfall ranging from about 1000 mm in the southern area to 1400 mm in the northern sector.
• The Bora wind, blowing from the east-north-east, frequently exceeds one hundred kilometres per hour in winter, promoting the drying out of the ground and dry soil conditions.

• In the 18th century, Empress Maria Theresa granted the Karst wine producers the right to sell their wine directly to consumers in the so-called osmize.
• The historian Pliny the Elder recounts that in the upper Adriatic gulf, not far from the mouth of the Timavo river, a wine called Pucinum was produced on a stony hill for the local market and for personal use.

• The white wines show a straw-yellow colour, sometimes with more or less intense golden highlights, with clean and intense fruity, sometimes spicy aromas.
• The red wines are characterized by an intense ruby red colour, sometimes with violet tints, a nose of clear personality with a pleasant and pronounced herbaceous note, and a sustained body with good acidity, sometimes marked as in Terrano.

• The Bora wind, moderate in the spring and summer months, helps to quickly clear Adriatic fog and to limit the impact of fungal diseases, making photosynthesis more effective to the benefit of sugar accumulation in the grapes.

Facts drawn from the specification's terroir-link section by automatic interpretation — see the source.

All appellations in Italy

Sources

• eAmbrosia register (EU) — File number PDO-IT-A0910
• Official trade body site — Associazione Viticoltori del Carso - Kras