Collio

Collio is Ribolla Gialla's home ground: a crescent of hills in the province of Gorizia that runs up against the Slovenian border, made a DOC in 1968 — the first in Friuli-Venezia Giulia. It gives the grape in two very different forms. Fermented in steel it is pale, bone-dry and taut, lemon and green apple over white blossom with a chalky, saline finish. Left on its golden skins for weeks or months, in the hamlet of Oslavia that became the Italian cradle of the modern skin-contact revival, the same grape turns amber, tannic and savoury. One appellation, one variety, two wines that barely resemble each other.