Italy · Colli Orientali del Friuli (Udine hills)

Azienda Agricola IL Roncal

Terraced hilltop estate in Cividale del Friuli farming twenty hectares on marl and sandstone for the Colli Orientali del Friuli DOC, led since 2006 by Martina Moreale after the death of founder Roberto Zorzettig.

The producer

Il Roncal sits on Colle Montebello above the medieval town of Cividale del Friuli, in the Colli Orientali del Friuli DOC of northeastern Italy. Roberto Zorzettig, an enologist by training, founded the estate in 1986 and named it after the landscape beneath his feet: roncal in Friulian dialect means a hillside cultivated in terraces. Twenty hectares of vines climb those terraced slopes on marly-clayey and marl-sandstone soils, producing around 80,000 bottles annually across the indigenous Friulian reds that define the appellation's most distinctive character.

Since Roberto died in 2006, his widow Martina Moreale has run both the winery and the agritourism property. The indigenous grapes he committed to at founding, Pignolo and Refosco dal Peduncolo Rosso in particular, remain the range's centre of gravity. Pignolo opens with a fruity, inviting bouquet and soft tannin; Refosco is fuller and more savoury, with wild blackberry, firm grip, and a dry finish that needs food alongside it.

Known for

Indigenous Friulian reds, particularly Pignolo and Refosco dal Peduncolo Rosso, from terraced marl and sandstone parcels on Colle Montebello.

Notable facts

The story

The Rooms on the Corridor

Roberto Zorzettig died in 2006, twenty years after founding Il Roncal on the terraced slopes of Colle Montebello. He had built a winery and an agritourism property simultaneously, and the hospitality side included ten guest rooms. When Martina Moreale took over, she named each room after a regional Friulian grape variety: one for Pignolo, one for Schioppettino, one for Refosco, and so on through the list of grapes the Colli Orientali DOC had spent decades recovering from near-extinction. A guest walking down the corridor could read the story of indigenous Friulian viticulture from the plaques on the doors. It is a detail that did not need to be that specific, and it is more memorable for being so.

From the atlas

Azienda Agricola IL Roncal

At A Glance

Producer: Azienda Agricola Il Roncal Country: Italy Region: Friuli Venezia Giulia Appellation: Colli Orientali del Friuli DOC Village: Cividale del Friuli Key Grapes: Pignolo, Refosco dal Peduncolo Rosso, Schioppettino Annual Production: 80,000 bottles Hectares: 20

The Producer

Il Roncal sits on Colle Montebello above the medieval town of Cividale del Friuli, in the Colli Orientali del Friuli DOC of northeastern Italy. Roberto Zorzettig, an enologist by training, founded the estate in 1986 and named it after the landscape beneath his feet: roncal in Friulian dialect means a hillside cultivated in terraces. Twenty hectares of vines climb those terraced slopes on marl and sandstone. The estate produces around 80,000 bottles annually, focused on the indigenous Friulian reds that define the appellation's most distinctive character, Pignolo and Refosco dal Peduncolo Rosso among them.

Since 2006, when Roberto died, his widow Martina Moreale has run both the winery and the agritourism operation the estate also carries. The wines have kept their footing in the Colli Orientali, a DOC whose reputation rests precisely on grapes like Pignolo that came close to disappearing before estates in the area brought them back.

Place

The Colli Orientali del Friuli DOC covers the eastern hills of Friuli Venezia Giulia, running southeast from the city of Udine toward the Slovenian border. The zone takes its name from the hills themselves, colli orientali meaning eastern hills, and the DOC permits a wide range of both indigenous Friulian and international grapes. Within that broad geography, Cividale del Friuli is a town with Roman and Lombard roots, and Colle Montebello is one of the named hills where the terrain breaks into the kind of steep, terraced parcels that give the appellation its most individual wines.

The terraces at Il Roncal are not incidental. They exist because the slopes are too steep to work any other way. That physical fact shapes the vines: terraced hillside farming slows the soil drainage, exposes fruit to more even light across the slope, and produces grapes at a pace that flatter ground cannot replicate. The Colli Orientali label on a bottle from this hill carries the character of that elevation and orientation.

Soil And Site

Il Roncal's twenty hectares grow on two overlapping soil types: marly-clayey ground and marl-sandstone. Both are characteristic of the Colli Orientali hills and both shape the wines in concrete ways. The clay fraction in the marly-clayey parcels holds water and moderates drought stress, giving the vines access to moisture through dry summers. The marl-sandstone sections drain more freely, pushing vines deeper for water and delivering wines with firmer mineral definition. The combination across Colle Montebello means different parcels express the same grape with different weight and grip, and the estate's range reflects that internal variety.

Story

Roberto Zorzettig spent twenty years building Il Roncal from a founding idea into a mid-size Colli Orientali DOC producer. He chose the indigenous varieties the appellation is built around and farmed the terraced hill the way the terrain required. When he died in 2006, the estate was a functioning winery and an agritourism property with guest accommodation on-site. Martina Moreale took over both.

Running a wine estate alone after a founding partner's death is not an unusual story in Italian viticulture, but doing it across two operations simultaneously, a production winery and a hospitality business, is a harder ask. Martina has managed both since 2006. The winery output has held at around 80,000 bottles. The guest rooms have stayed open. The indigenous Friulian grapes Roberto committed to when he founded the estate remain the range's centre of gravity.

Vineyards And Cellar

The terraced parcels on Colle Montebello demand hand work at every stage. The slope angle makes mechanical harvesting impractical, so grapes are picked by hand, which allows selection on the vine rather than on a sorting table after the fact. Pignolo, the variety with the longest history on these slopes, is harvested for depth of colour and a fruity aromatic profile. The marl-sandstone soils contribute a mineral character that the variety can absorb across a longer hang time.

Refosco dal Peduncolo Rosso, the other key red, is farmed for full body and the savoury grip that distinguishes it from the softer reds of the region. Wild blackberry and undergrowth aromas develop on the vine; savoury tannin builds in the cellar. The Civon blend draws on multiple varieties with composition adjusted by vintage, which gives the winemaking team a flexible tool for absorbing variation across the hillside parcels from year to year.

Wines

Il Roncal produces across the Colli Orientali del Friuli DOC in both red and white categories. The indigenous reds carry the most weight in the range. Pignolo, a grape native to the Colli Orientali that came close to extinction in the mid-twentieth century, produces a wine of deep ruby colour, soft tannin, and a fruity, inviting bouquet. It is not a heavy or aggressive red; the tannin is gentle and the fruit forward. Refosco dal Peduncolo Rosso is a fuller, more savoury proposition: ruby to violet in colour, with wild blackberry and undergrowth on the nose, firm tannin, and a body that finishes dry and slightly grippy. Schioppettino completes the indigenous red trio. White wines are part of the range, and the Civon blend is a proprietary multi-variety red whose composition shifts with each vintage. At 80,000 bottles across the full range, the estate sits in mid-scale territory within the DOC, large enough to have distribution but small enough that individual vineyard character still drives the decisions.

In The Glass

Pignolo at Il Roncal opens with a fruity, vinous bouquet that is more inviting than austere. The colour is deep ruby. The tannin is soft. Refosco dal Peduncolo Rosso works differently: the nose moves toward wild blackberry and forest floor, the palate is fuller and more structured, and the finish carries a savoury grip from the tannin that needs food alongside it. The two grapes together trace the range of what the Colli Orientali marl-sandstone hills produce: one variety that leans toward fruit and softness, another that leans toward body and savouriness. Both are dry, both are red, and both carry the mineral baseline of Colle Montebello underneath the fruit.

A Bottle To Understand It

Start with the Pignolo. It is the variety most directly tied to the Colli Orientali DOC, and Il Roncal's version is built for a first encounter rather than for a cellar. Deep ruby in the glass, with a fruity and slightly floral bouquet from the marly soils of Colle Montebello. The body is medium-full and the tannin soft enough not to require years of age before the wine makes sense. A glass alongside grilled meats or aged Friulian cheese shows the estate's approach clearly: indigenous grape, terraced hillside farming, clean fruit character with gentle grip. No oak distraction, no weight that obscures the variety.

Anecdote

Roberto Zorzettig died in 2006, twenty years after founding Il Roncal on the terraced slopes of Colle Montebello. He had built a winery and an agritourism property at the same time, and the hospitality side included ten guest rooms. When Martina Moreale took over, she named each of those rooms after a regional Friulian grape variety: one for Pignolo, one for Schioppettino, one for Refosco, and so on down the list of grapes that the Colli Orientali DOC had spent decades recovering from near-extinction. A guest walking down the corridor could read the story of indigenous Friulian viticulture from the plaques on the doors. It is a detail that did not need to be that specific, and it is more memorable for being so.

Final Word

Il Roncal is a hillside estate defined by its physical site and its commitment to the indigenous Friulian reds the Colli Orientali DOC is built around. Pignolo and Refosco dal Peduncolo Rosso are the bottles that matter here. Martina Moreale has kept the estate on course since 2006, and the wines remain grounded in the terraced marl-sandstone parcels that Roberto Zorzettig named his estate after.

Sources

Open Azienda Agricola IL Roncal in the interactive map →