Questo vino
Vineyard and terroir
The fruit comes from the Dessimis vineyard in Friuli Isonzo Rive Alte, at 34 metres above sea level. The clay soils contain gravel and small stones, which provide good drainage. Iron and aluminium oxides give the soil its reddish colour.
Vinification
The grapes are harvested by hand in mid-September, then destemmed and pressed. They undergo six hours of cold maceration at 8 °C, followed by fermentation in old oak barrels at 15–19 °C for 11–13 days.
Ageing
The wine rests on its lees for seven months in oak barriques: 32% new, 42% one year old and 26% two years old. It then spends ten months in bottle.
Label / history
The estate was originally named after its owner, Gianfranco Gallo. After Ernesto and Julio Gallo of California obtained a court order preventing his products from entering the United States under the Gallo name, US customs stopped admitting those wines in 1986. Three vintages were subsequently released under the name Masut, before the estate adopted the name Vie di Romans in 1990.
Vie di Romans means “the roads of the Romans”, referring to the local area where a road used by Roman legionaries linked Rome with an Adriatic port city at the beginning of the first millennium. Gianfranco Gallo inherited the family’s 4-hectare vineyard in 1978; the estate now owns 50 hectares of vineyards, makes 14 wines and has a stated total annual production of 20,000 bottles.
