Friuli Isonzo

Styles

Principal grape varieties

Terroir

• The territory presents two distinct pedological microzones defined by the Isonzo: to the north, the Rive Alte with noble clays blended with red gravels; to the south, the Rive di Giare with calcareous soils of white gravels and Adriatic sands.
• Geologically, Quaternary deposits dominate, comprising ancient alluvium from the Pleistocene and more recent and current alluvium from the Holocene, carried by the Isonzo.
• The ridges of Monte di Medea and the Carso Isontino are composed of the Calcari del Monte San Michele, dating to the Tertiary and Secondary periods, while the Flysch of the northern ridges belongs to the Eocene of the Tertiary.
• The soils of the upper Isonzo plain are mainly calcareous and strongly decalcified, with red gravels and a ferrettised topsoil layer of nearly one metre that tends toward the terra rossa type.
• The climate of the area is characterised by abundant rainfall of approximately 1,200 mm, concentrated mainly in spring and autumn, with greater drought in July and August and a mean annual temperature of 13 °C.

• Pliny the Elder, in 77 AD, mentions the wine Pucinum produced not far from the source of the Timavo, on a rocky hill where it ripens for a few amphorae in the sea breeze.
• In the third century, the emperor Maximinus requisitioned barrels and vats on site to construct a wooden bridge over the Isonzo, allowing his legions to reach Aquileia, then under siege.

• The white wines display a generally intense straw-yellow colour, with floral and fruity aromas and a palate that is more structured than average, with good balance and complex aromatic nuances.
• The red wines show a ruby hue with violet reflections in young wines, and intense fruity aromas that in more aged wines shade toward spiced or phenolic notes associated with wood.

• The territory is an open window to the winds, where the cold, dry bora from the Balkans alternates with the warm, humid scirocco from the Adriatic, with a prevailing moderating maritime influence that generates a Mediterranean microclimate.

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-A0959
• Official trade body site — UNI.DOC FVG - Unione dei Consorzi Vini DOC del Friuli Venezia Giulia