Friuli Colli Orientali

The production rules cite Herodian (AD 170-240) on Latin colonists garlanding the Friulian countryside with vines, and Strabo on carts of wine carried over the Alps. Cividale del Friuli, the heart of the zone, was then Forum Julii, a Roman municipium of the X Regio Venetia et Histria, whose name later passed to the whole region. The most important evidence is Lombard: the Tempietto Longobardo of about 760, where a stucco vine scroll with bunches and leaves frames the entrance.

Early in the twentieth century the painter Giacomo Meneghini of Nimis, known as Jacun Pitor, left a fresco of Bacchus on a barrel in a house at Spessa di Cividale. The DOC "Colli Orientali del Friuli" was recognised by presidential decree of 20 July 1970; Ramandolo and Rosazzo began as its subzones. Ramandolo became a DOCG in 2001, Picolit in 2006 and Rosazzo in 2011, and a decree of 14 October 2011 renamed the DOC Friuli Colli Orientali.

The DOC covers all or part of 19 communes in the province of Udine, among them Tarcento, Nimis, Attimis, Cividale del Friuli, Buttrio, Corno di Rosazzo and Prepotto. Its soils belong to the "Flysch of Cormons", the ponca: layers of marl with 40-60% lime and some potassium, and harder sandstone with 40-70% silica. The grey-blue marl crumbles into flakes, turns yellowish and dissolves into clay; fossils such as nummulites, gastropods and corals appear on the hills of Rosazzo, Rocca Bernarda, Noax and Buttrio. Impermeable marl sheds rain, cutting V-shaped valleys, so growers terraced the hills to stop the soil from washing away. Vineyards lie at 100-400 m.

The Julian Prealps shelter the zone and the sea is no more than 40 km away. The mean is about 15 °C, 18-19 °C from April to October, with 1800-1900 degree-days. Growing-season rain falls from about 1157 mm at Ramandolo, the region's northernmost vineyard, to 976 mm at Cividale and under 900 mm further south.

The rules attribute most of the wines' character to soil and climate. Whites are straw yellow with green or gold glints, and Pinot Grigio may show a copper tint, the ramato. They are soft, with clean, intense scents from firm fruit to fine flowers, sometimes the bitter almond of Friulano, and a balance and body the rules call a trademark of the zone, able to age long. Reds are ruby, with fine herbaceous and spicy notes, undergrowth and small fruit, dry and full; the native varieties best suited to long ageing show a clear astringency, with acidity always present. The rules track vintages with a torridity index, which averaged 1.9 over the last decade, within the humid range.

The grape list balances ten white and ten black varieties, nine of them native, among them Refosco dal Peduncolo Rosso, Schioppettino and Pignolo. Only well-exposed Eocene hill soils qualify; new vineyards need 3,000 vines per hectare, yields are at most 11 t/ha, and no more than 70% of the grape weight may become wine (65% in Savorgnano). Riserva needs two years from 1 November, four for Pignolo. Picolit is a sweet white of at least 85% Picolit, 100% in Cialla, from grapes dried on the vine or on racks. Ramandolo is Verduzzo Friulano from Nimis and Tarcento. Rosazzo is a dry blend of at least 50% Friulano with Sauvignon, Pinot Bianco or Chardonnay and a little Ribolla Gialla.