Schioppettino’s revival Ronchi di Cialla

It takes a certain knack to find ways to become lost while traveling within a subsection of a region that in its entirety is roughly two-thirds the size of Connecticut.

Yet, in looking for Ronchi di Cialla, in the town of Rosazzo of the Gorizia province in Friuli, the turn down the sideroad leading to the vineyard remained stubbornly elusive.

Locals who were stopped and asked for help were generously patient, and pleasantly amused, to be providing direction to the far-flung “giornolista di California” with limited pocket phrasebook Italian.  

If Ronchi di Cialla seems remote, even for this tightly quartered region of rolling hills, there’s good reason.

Cialla is a small valley that faces northeast to southwest and is surrounded by woods of chestnut, oak, and wild cherry trees. It is recognized as an official cru for the production of five native varietals: verduzzo, picolit, ribolla gialla, refosco, and schioppettino within the Colli Orientali del Friuli DOC.

Its name draws from the languages of the past, with roncs in the Friulian dialect meaning “vinery cultivated hills” and Cialla derived from the Slavic Cela for “Riviera,” in reference to the microclimate that blesses olives trees growing there.  

The vineyard’s step terraces are said to date back to the 15th century, as the Republic of Venice was reaching its height and its territorial rule stretched to encompass what is modern-day Friuli, Veneto, and the Istrian Peninsula. Church records note purchases of wines from this plot dating back to 1496.

Ronchi di Cialla’s most recent chapter started in 1970, when the husband-and-wife team of Paolo and Dina Rapuzze founded the vineyard with the idea of producing exclusively indigenous Friuli varietals.

The business premise may sound simple in theory, but it proved a challenge in practice with regards to cultivation of schioppettino vines.

Alias ribolla nera from ancient times, schioppettino’s modern name translates to “gunshot” in reference to the sharp spice notes that zip across the palate.

Tasting notes aside, it’s an apt moniker for a varietal that was something of an outlaw in the 1970s. Officially classified as extinct, its cultivation had become illegal.

The Rapuzzis managed to get their hands on 60 surviving vines of schioppettino and made new cuttings from the best shoots. They were aided by Bernardo Bruno, then mayor of neighboring Prepotto, considered, alongside the valley of Cialla, as the medieval homestead of schioppettino.

These efforts to revive schioppettino were spurred in part by the roughly one-century anniversary of phylloxera reaching Friuli.

Schioppettino was one of the local varietals to be nearly lost between vines that were either destroyed directly by phylloxera or uprooted and replanted with French varietals in an attempt to save vineyards.

For the Rapuzzis, patience and persistence to bring schioppettino back from the brink of obscurity and rescue it from an entanglement of red tape was awarded in 1976.

The couple received the inaugural Risit d’aur, an award established by the prestigious distiller, and Friulian family enterprise since 1897, Nonino to recognize efforts to preserve native varietals.

In the decades since, accolades have since continued to pour in for Ronchi di Cialla. In January 2001, the 1986 and 1988 Schioppettino di Cialla were auctioned at Christie’s in New York alongside the finest Italian and French producers.

Paolo and Dina are now supported by the second generation of growers, sons Pierpaolo and Ivan, who inherit as part of the family legacy the responsibility to uphold schioppettino’s status as the region’s most sophisticated native red.

The counterpoint to the intricacies of schioppettino is the rusticity of refosco.

Lush, smoky, and earthy while maintaining high acidity – generally an aspect that makes wine food friendly – refosco is viewed more as the everyday drinking wine. Such easy tippling does not take away from its complexity and aging potential.

Partway through the tasting with matriarch Dina of Ronchi de Cialla, we were joined by Wayne Young, a New Jersey ex-pat in year 18 working with nearby Bastianich.

He was stopping in to pick up bottles of aged refosco to pour at a vertical tasting in tribute to the heady varietal later that night.

Thought to have originated in the area that encompasses this corner of northeastern Italy as well neighboring Slovenia and down into the Istrian Peninsula of Croatia, refosco is actually the name given to closely-related dark-skinned grape varieties, collectively known as refoschi.

Though its homeland is thought to span modern borders, Refosco’s production is predominantly within Italy at approximately 87 percent. Croatia accounts for about 7 percent, with Slovenia contributing roughly 4 percent.

A 2005 study using DNA profiling and ampelography, an offshoot of botany that deals specifically with grapevines, found six distinct types of refosco.

Within this cluster, it’s refosco dal peduncolo rosso, “refosco with the red stems,” that is most prized. It has also been found to be the parent of corvina, the primary varietal used to make Amarone della Valpolicella.

Refosco del botton, which also goes by the name tazzelenghe, or “cuts the tongue,” is another member of the family.

Tracing the lineage and homelands of the world’s varietals has become a new frontier for oenophiles.

Let’s just count ourselves lucky that the likes of schioppettino and refosco still get to be part of the pack.