History

Three generations, one family history.

Our grandpa ‘Min’ – and then Livio, our dad – in the ‘60s began the history of what is today Tunella, owned by Massimo and Marco Zorzettig. The two, together with their mother Gabriella, are now the proud custodian of their family’s tradition, with over 50 years of history. Tunella is the prime example of a reality in which the meaning of the present blends with the memory of the past, together with a strong drive to experiment while almost religiously respecting the best traditions of the Colli Orientali del Friuli: a future built on the present, day by day.

Winery

There, the soul of wine takes shape – combining country work and winemaking expertise. A wine is a project requiring high-quality raw materials and careful and scrupulous work to protect them. The cellar is the window to this project: ours is distributed on two levels and is perfectly functional to the various stages of winemaking. Temperatures, humidity and ventilation are strictly controlled and adapted to the personal stamp of each wine.  The room for the fermentation of white wines and the one dedicated to the drying of grapes, the barriques’ cellar, and the tonneaux and oak barrels’ room in which the red wines are aged, are all located in the basement, while the ground floor hosts the warehouse and the bottling plant, as well as an external area dedicated to the storage of equipment.

Production

Do little to do better: is the philosophy to follow to achieve quality.

Our idea is to put emphasis on some native Friulian grape varieties of particular value and high quality. White wines such as Friulano, Ribolla Gialla (which we call Rjgialla), and Malvasia Istriana (our Valmasìa), as well as red wines like Refosco dal Peduncolo Rosso, Schioppettino, and Pignolo are considered the highest expression of this winegrowing area.

Besides these native grape varieties with which we produce single vineyard wines, we select only the best grapes of Friulano and Ribolla Gialla for our Biancosesto, a blend of two great native varieties that undergoes fermentation and aging in 30-hl Slavonian oak barrels. The blend is released onto the market at least a year after the harvest.

We make two single vineyard crus since 2011: Colmatìss Sauvignon and Coldebliss Ribolla Gialla. Starting from 2015 we have also added a third one: Colbajè Pinot Grigio. The grapes of our single vineyard crus come from three small distinct plots located in different areas around Cividale, grown on vines that were planted in the 1980s.

CHARACTERISTICS

Colli Orientali, a territory like no other.

The Colli Orientali del Friuli area is regarded as one of the most suitable for growing grapevines thanks to the particular composition of the soil and the favourable microclimate. The hill slopes covered with terraced vineyards are protected from the cold winds that blow from the north by the Julian Prealps and are pleasantly swept be the warm breeze from the Adriatic Sea just a few dozen kilometres away.

The soil is composed by alternating layers of flaky marls (clayey limestone, known as “ponca” in Friulian) and sandstone (calcified sands) rich in lime, potassium and phosphorus. Of the 70 hectares of Tunella vineyards, all located in the DOC area, 70% are devoted to growing white grapes and the remaining 30% to red grapes; a proportion that reflects the tradition of this area.