Italy · Collio & Brda Hills (Gorizia)

Le Vigne di Zamo

Le Vigne di Zamò farms three terroir clusters, Rosazzo, Buttrio, and Rocca Bernarda, in the Colli Orientali hills of Friuli Venezia Giulia. The signature is No Name Friulano: lots from different sites handled separately, then eight months on fine lees, producing a single-variety white with stone fruit, dried herbs, and a mineral, textured finish.

The producer

Pierluigi Zamò leads an estate that began in 1978 when his uncle Tullio bought five hectares on the Rocca Bernarda hill. Three years later, Pierluigi and his brother Silvano leased the vineyard land surrounding the Abbey of Rosazzo from the Archdiocese of Udine, launched the Abbazia di Rosazzo label, and made the estate's first barrique-aged wines. The 1988 Ronco dei Roseti won Gambero Rosso's Tre Bicchieri and confirmed the direction. Today the estate covers roughly 65 to 67 hectares across three distinct zones, each carrying a different grape portfolio and a different role in the range.

The cellar approach is traditionally minded and unhurried. No herbicides, manure and humus for soil fertility, and a long lees élevage for the flagship white. No Name Friulano keeps each vineyard lot separate through fermentation, then unifies them for eight months on fine lees with weekly bâtonnage, building textural weight without oak. Zamò Orange takes Malvasia delle Venezie through six months of skin maceration in amphora. Zamò Rosso draws on the oldest Buttrio vines, blending Merlot and Cabernet with Refosco dal peduncolo rosso, a northeastern Italian variety with firm tannin and acidity for ageing. Organic certification arrived in 2021, confirming practices the family had followed for years.

Known for

Friulano from multi-site lees ageing, Malvasia delle Venezie orange wine in amphora, Merlot and Refosco blends from the oldest Buttrio vines.

Notable facts

The story

The Lease at Rosazzo

In 1981, Pierluigi and Silvano Zamò approached the Archdiocese of Udine and negotiated a lease on the vineyard land surrounding the Abbey of Rosazzo. The abbey sits on a low hill south of Manzano, its vines worked by monks for centuries before passing to Church administration. Pierluigi and Silvano launched a new label under the abbey's name and used the leased fruit to make the estate's first barrique-aged wines, a method then read in northeastern Italy as a clear signal of serious intent. The gamble was not small: the family's wine background was an osteria, not a domaine, and barrique ageing required capital and conviction the region's bulk producers rarely committed. Seven years later, the 1988 Ronco dei Roseti, made from those abbey-adjacent vines, received Gambero Rosso's Tre Bicchieri. The monastic address had become a wine with a score.

From the atlas

Le Vigne di Zamò

At A Glance

The Producer

Le Vigne di Zamò farms three separate terroir clusters across the Colli Orientali hills southeast of Udine: Rosazzo, where the estate is based; Buttrio, where the oldest vines grow; and Rocca Bernarda, where the family first planted in 1978. Together they cover roughly 65 to 67 hectares, and keeping them distinct shows up directly in the cellar, where different vineyard lots are handled separately before being brought together.

Pierluigi Zamò leads the estate today. The Zamò family's connection to Manzano goes back to 1924, when Luigi Zamò opened an osteria in the village. The wine estate came later. The cellar's approach is traditionally minded: no herbicides, no shortcuts in the vineyard, and an eight-month lees élevage for the flagship white that rewards patience over extraction. Organic certification arrived formally in 2021, confirming practices the family had followed for years.

Place

Friuli Venezia Giulia occupies the northeastern corner of Italy, bordered by Slovenia to the east and the Adriatic to the south. The Colli Orientali, the eastern hills, form a band of Prealps ridges running roughly from Tarcento in the north down toward Manzano. The underlying rock is Eocene flysch, a layered alternation of marl and sandstone called ponca in local dialect. It drains well, holds warmth through the afternoon, and gives the wines a mineral grip that stays through the finish.

The climate is continental with Adriatic moderation: warm growing seasons, cool nights, and enough diurnal range to preserve acidity in grapes that ripen fully. Friulano, the white variety that defines the Colli Orientali, produces wines with stone fruit, dried herbs, and a faintly nutty character on ponca soils. The Rosazzo sub-zone, where Le Vigne di Zamò is headquartered, carries DOCG status for certain white blends. The estate bottles its wines under the broader Friuli Colli Orientali DOC.

Soil And Site

The three terroirs are not interchangeable. Rosazzo sits at the heart of the estate's operation, surrounded by the vineyard land the family leased from the Archdiocese of Udine in 1981. Buttrio lies to the west and holds the five oldest estate-owned hectares, planted to Friulano and the red varieties Merlot, Cabernet, and Refosco dal peduncolo rosso. Rocca Bernarda, to the south, was the original purchase in 1978 when Tullio Zamò began what would become Le Vigne di Zamò.

All three zones sit on the characteristic ponca flysch, but their slope aspects and elevations differ, giving the winemaking team material with varying ripeness and aromatic profiles. Farming across the estate relies on manure and humus for fertility and mechanical tools for weed control, with no herbicides applied at any point.

Story

Tullio Zamò started the estate in 1978 by buying five hectares on the Rocca Bernarda hill and registering the name Vigne dal Leon. Three years later, his sons Pierluigi and Silvano made the move that shaped everything after: they approached the Archdiocese of Udine and took a lease on the vineyard land surrounding the Abbey of Rosazzo, a medieval religious site whose monks had worked the vines for centuries before the Church took over their administration. Under the new Abbazia di Rosazzo label, they produced the estate's first barrique-aged wines, a deliberate signal of ambition in a region then dominated by bulk production.

In 1987, winemaker Franco Bernabei and commercial director Silvano Formigli joined the estate, sharpening both the cellar work and the route to market. A year later, the 1988 Ronco dei Roseti, a white blend from the abbey-adjacent vines, won Gambero Rosso's Tre Bicchieri, the highest award in Italian wine publishing. The recognition confirmed that the Rosazzo lease and the barrique decision had produced something worth judging against the national field.

The estate has continued under Pierluigi's direction. The long arc from natural farming to certified organic completed in 2021, when the first fully certified harvest came in.

Vineyards And Cellar

The oldest vines at Buttrio anchor the red range: Merlot, Cabernet, and Refosco dal peduncolo rosso grown on five estate-owned hectares. Refosco dal peduncolo rosso is a northeastern Italian variety with firm natural tannin, high acidity, and dark fruit character. Its inclusion in the Zamò Rosso blend gives the wine grip and longevity that Merlot and Cabernet alone would not supply.

For No Name Friulano, each vineyard lot is settled overnight after harvest, then fermented and aged separately before the lots are combined. The unified wine then spends eight months on fine lees with weekly bâtonnage, stirring the spent yeast cells back through the wine to build texture and mid-palate weight without adding oak character. The wine spends eight months on fine lees with weekly bâtonnage.

Zamò Orange takes a different path. Malvasia delle Venezie, an aromatic northeastern variety, is macerated on its skins for six months in amphora, the unglazed clay vessels giving the wine an amber colour and extracting tannin that softens the variety's native aromatic exuberance into something drier, with tannin from the skins.

Wines

No Name Friulano is the estate's primary white: 100 percent Friulano from multiple vineyard sites, lots handled separately through fermentation, then combined and aged eight months on fine lees. Stone fruit, dried herbs, and a nutty, mineral finish characterise the style. The lees contact adds weight without heaviness, and the multi-site blending gives the wine more aromatic range than a single-parcel bottling would.

Zamò Orange is Malvasia delle Venezie after six months of skin maceration in amphora. The 2021 release shows apricot, chamomile, and orange peel on the nose, with a lightly tannic, pleasantly bitter finish. The tannin here comes from the grape skins rather than oak, giving the wine a drying texture that works as a food partner in a way conventional white Malvasia does not.

Zamò Rosso draws on the Buttrio parcel's Merlot, Cabernet, and Refosco dal peduncolo rosso. The red blend is fermented then aged in oak, producing a wine with violet, blackberry, and spice on the nose, a firm tannic frame from the Refosco, and a palate that benefits from a few years of cellaring.

Ronco dei Roseti remains the estate's historic white blend, the wine that won Tre Bicchieri with the 1988 vintage. Current production details are not confirmed in available sources.

In The Glass

No Name Friulano opens with stone fruit and dried herbs, the character Friulano produces on ponca flysch, then moves into a mid-palate with more weight than the variety typically delivers. The bâtonnage lees ageing is responsible: the stirring builds a creamy texture that carries the fruit without softening the mineral grip underneath. The finish is nutty and long, with a slight savoury edge that keeps the wine interesting through the last sip.

Zamò Orange reads amber in the glass. The nose is dried and spiced, apricot and chamomile rather than fresh fruit, with orange peel adding a citrus note that runs through to the finish. On the palate the skin-contact tannin produces a drying sensation rather than bitterness, and the wine closes with a clean, pleasantly astringent edge that signals food rather than dessert.

Zamò Rosso shows the Refosco character clearly: dark fruit, violet, and spice on the nose, firm tannin on the palate, and an acidity that keeps the finish from going soft. The Merlot and Cabernet round the blend and add mid-palate flesh, but the Refosco gives the wine its spine.

A Bottle To Understand It

Start with No Name Friulano. It is 100 percent Friulano, the grape that defines the Colli Orientali, grown across three terroir clusters and aged eight months on fine lees. Stone fruit and dried herbs come first, then the textural mid-palate that the extended bâtonnage builds, then a mineral, nutty finish that stays. No oak. No residual sweetness. The wine is the estate's three-terroir farming and its traditional cellar approach in a single bottle, and it shows more clearly than any other release what Friulano on ponca soils actually delivers.

Anecdote

In 1981, Pierluigi and Silvano Zamò approached the Archdiocese of Udine and negotiated a lease on the vineyard land surrounding the Abbey of Rosazzo. The abbey sits on a low hill south of Manzano, its vines worked by monks for centuries before passing to Church administration. Pierluigi and Silvano launched a new label under the abbey's name and used the leased fruit to make the estate's first barrique-aged wines, a method then read in northeastern Italy as a clear signal of serious intent. The gamble was not small: the family's wine background was an osteria, not a domaine, and barrique ageing required capital and conviction the region's bulk producers rarely committed. Seven years later, the 1988 Ronco dei Roseti, made from those abbey-adjacent vines, received Gambero Rosso's Tre Bicchieri. The monastic address had become a wine with a score.

Final Word

Le Vigne di Zamò built its reputation from a leased abbey and a decision to age wine in barrique at a time when the region was still largely selling in bulk. Four decades later the estate farms three terroir clusters, holds organic certification, and makes a Friulano that draws everything together in one bottle. The Colli Orientali is one of Italy's most serious white wine zones, and No Name is a clear argument for why.

Sources

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