I visited Alessio and Cristina Dorigo after they had moved operations to a new base near Povoletto, his father having retired and sold the old winery at Buttrio. It is only 15 minutes away but it felt like a very new start.
This area is the Collio Orientali del Friuli ( = COF), just north of, and in many ways a continuation of, the Collio DOC. But I particularly wanted to come here as they have a reputation for red wines as well as whites, including those from local varieties. In fact they have a comprehensive selection of wines, many of which we tasted in a very generous tasting.
I tried some of their best products from white to red, from Ronc di Juri to Pignolo. What a great taste!
The Dorigo winery was created in 1966 with the purchase of two vineyards, Ronc di Juri at Buttrio and Montsclapade, at Premariacco. These are ancient local place names, meaning the “Juri Vineyard”, after the family that for generations cultivated the land before we arrived, and the “Split Mountain”, because of the road that slices the summit in two.
During the tasting we discuss the wine scene in Friuli. The first half of the century saw one disaster after another, whether oenological (phylloxera) or even more seriously two world wars – Friuli had been at the centre of the old Austrian empire which was passing away and was caught in the thick of the action.
After the war the first priority was quantity and so there was a lot of planting on the plain. It was only in the 1970s with a tiny group of pioneers – which included Girolamo Dorigo – that the new path to quality and contemporary, fresh and expressive wines was set.
Dorigo do produce a great range of red wines from local varieties – Schioppettino, Refosco at two quality levels, Tazzelenghe and Pignolo.
The Dorigo family has been a pioneer in modern Friulian viticulture and I have no doubt that the next generation will now take it forward from their new estate – ten hectares of vines in Buttrio and ten in Povoletto.
There is a message in Dorigo bottles. It tells of their love for the land and its fruits, the dedication of the people who work it, and their excitement when grapes are transformed into that most noble of beverages, wine.
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