Visintini Friuli Colli Orientali DOP Merlot 2019

Siblings Palmira, Oliviero and Cinzia Visintini are at the helm of the Visintini estate.  You can see Slovenia from their farm, it’s the next line of low hills on the horizon, 6km away. Their grandfather, Domenico Visintini bought the estate and its ruined medieval tower (once the location for the Castle of Gramogliano) in 1884, which included an original 13th century cellar.

The Visintinis farm twenty five hectares of indigenous grapes (Ribolla, Verduzzo, Friulano, Franconia) the bulk of which are in close proximity to the cellar. The winery was significantly expanded in 1976 by Andrea (the trio’s father) allowing for their current robust 140,000 bottle annual production, more or less. The new portion built by Andrea rests a full six meters underground, perfect for long term storage of the estate’s amphorae and bottle-aged reds. Andrea also installed the mixture of cement and stainless steel tanks that are used to ferment and age Visintini’s white wines. Fruili, although more known for whites, actually has more indigenous reds than whites. The Visintini siblings work with both. Their guiding principle in the cellar is to do as little as possible. In the fields Oliviero is charting a path toward biodynamic agriculture, and after years of organic farming they were recently certified.