
Which kind of vine-growing and winemaking tradition is there in the
area of Gorizia, or rather in the area of the " ISONZO" label of origin?
There is no doubt this tradition is quite ancient: in fact, it is
well-known that grapevine growing was started in our region at the
time of the Romans who settled in the territory of present Friuli,
after having founded Aquileia (181 BC) in the surrounding lowland.
But it appears that the first inhabitants of these regions - we are
now in the realm of legends telling us about the "Eneti", a people
mainly dedicated to agriculture - might have introduced grapevines
coming from Greece, thus enriching their agricultural activities with
this important innovation. Trading various cultivated produces, in
fact, must have been very frequent already at that time, as many historians
attribute the origin of the name Isonzo, designating the main river
to be found in this area, to the Celtic name " Esos ", that of the
god of commerce. Among the most ancient writers who wrote about the
existence of the famous Gorizia lowland wine, we can quote Pliny the
Elder. In his " Natural History ", XIV/6, he mentions the Noble Pucinum
Wine. The historian Giuseppe Berini, in his "Survey on the state of
the Timavo and its surroundings at the beginning of the Christian
era" printed in 1826, says that in the Roman year 990 (237 AD), in
order to delay the arrival of the tyrant Maximian, the inhabitants
of Aquileia destructed the bridge crossing the Isonzo river in the
area of Ronchi. Therefore Maximian substituted it with "empty wine
containers put together in a bundle and covered with earth and small
branches" that had been collected in the surroundings. Another historian,
Basilio Asquini, in his "Geographical description of the Monfalcone
territory in Friuli" (Udine, 1741) describes the blossoming of grapevine
as follows "... in no other way thought does the marvelous activity
of this soil show up, than in the growing of plants, which are well
fed and therefore rich and big. They may be seen almost everywhere:
Separately, grapevines are such that we believe none thicker or more
fertile would Bacchus be able to boast of as existing in his empire............
Besides wines may be kept easily from one year to the other without
suffering ANY DAMAGE due to the warm season: as long as they are stored
in cool and well managed wine cellars. We must also say that we had
the great privilege of discovering that the local people enjoyed these
wines themselves, so that they never subjected anything to calculations......
Some 17th century documents mention vines that are still cultivated
nowadays: when emperor Leopold I gave the fief of Cormòns to the Locatelli
family, in other words the Estate of Angoris, the wines precisely
mentioned already at that time were Ribolla, Refosco and Verduzzo,
the last two being currently wines with the label of origin " Isonzo
". |
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