Friuli’s Colli Orientali DOC zone embodies the region’s wine history. Many native grape varieties still grow in local vineyards, including the noblest of all, Pignolo. This is why Nero Magis chose this area for a wine project that has the ambition to be unique and universal.
The vines command a magnificent view of the Colli Orientali, where the church of Orsaria rises above the horizon, and eastwards in the distance, the hill of Rosazzo.
Turning slightly westwards, we see the massive outline of Cividale cathedral and, one after another, the vineyard-covered hills lead our gaze as far as Ramandolo.
The secret behind these wines is in the land. Here, they reap the benefits of a unique microclimate between the sea (only about twenty kilometres away) and the snowy Alps, which form a spectacular backdrop.
Great wines are very often made where beauty is an integral part of the land: unique and, therefore, universal.
The soil of the Friuli’s Colli Orientali DOC zone is composed of marly (silts) and sandstone rocks deposited in the Tertiary, i.e. during the Eocene epoch.
The way they formed is fascinating. Sixty million years ago the plain and hills of present-day Friuli were an enormous gulf on what would later become the Adriatic Sea.
Following a generalised, regional uplift, which occurred from 1.8m to 70m years ago, the eastern submontane and piedmont area became dry land, forcing the sea back. This complex, which includes Friuli Venezia Giulia’s finest wine-producing soils, is called Cormòns flysch.