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History and philosophy
Statute
Disciplinari di produzione

History and philosophy

The “Colli Orientali del Friuli” DOC wine consortium was established on April 18th, 1970. The consortium is based in Cividale del Friuli, initially at the former Bozzoli grape drying facility and now, since 1995, under the bell tower of the Duomo (Via Candotti 3), set between the walls and medieval three-mullioned windows of a Fifteenth Century cloister. The area extends along the entire arc of hills embracing the north-eastern portion of the province of Udine up to the border with Slovenia, covering a total of 2,300 hectares registered by the consortium producing on average 9 million litres of DOC wine per year. The towns of Tarcento, Nimis, Faedis, Povoletto and Attimis Torreano to the North; San Pietro al Natisone and Prepotto to the East of Cividale; and Premariacco, Buttrio, Manzano, San Giovanni al Natisone and Corno di Rosazzo to the South: this is the “Garden of the Vine and Wine”, the happy culmination of a project intended to offer the best support possible to the development of wine producing in a context of integrated economic and environmental resource management, in which the territory and wine fuse to form a single, inseparable entity.
Pietro Rubini, the first chairman (1970-1974), Giampaolo Volpe Pasini (1974-1975), Luigi Rodaro (1975-1976), Giovanni Pellizzo (1976-1993), Dario Ermacora (1993-1999) Ivana Adami (1999-2002) and Adriano Gigante (2002-2005) have led the transformation of the Colli Orientali to become what it is today – a streamlined and efficient consortium counting 200 associated businesses.
The memorandum of association, signed on May 6th, 1970, expresses the consortium’s mission to introduce innovation in agriculture without relinquishing millenary traditions and to provide technical and, more specifically, oenological support to the wine producers of these hills. These were the original intentions of the founding fathers, which have also been realised with the help of worthy collaborators (Lorenzo Torresin – director from 1970 to 1995). The scope of the technical support offered has gradually broadened to include agronomic, wine farming and, in the past decade, activities for the promotion of superior quality products. Today Pierluigi Comelli and Mariano Palladin, respectively chairman and director of the consortium, are responsible for continuing along this path to build the future on the foundations of the past.
Since time immemorial, wine has coursed like lifeblood through the invisible veins of this land, springing to the surface here and there in the imagination and folklore of its people. In these hills, Friulian, Slavonic and Germanic values and sentiments intertwine, pervading every aspect of the area’s wine and culinary traditions, identity and very way of living and working. This is a history of generations, of children completing the work of their forebears, creating modern wine-producing business and promoting and developing the territory. These rigorous values, shared with individualism, community spirit and a proud work ethic, have become common practice. The rules for harmonious coexistence adopted by past generations have now become the principles of the mentality, society and even the way of doing business here, that permeate the days, dawns, sunsets, tables, kitchens, bottles, Osterias and the very essence of oneself and others.
It has not been easy to translate all this into a “corporate philosophy”, let alone into development, communication and marketing strategies, for this consortium, which represents small and large businesses, grape farmers, wine makers and bottlers. There is only one possible solution, a single ideal shared by all. This is the equation “wine = territory” of a DOC denomination that safeguards the largest number of native varieties in Italy.
This is the true message in a bottle of Ribolla Gialla, Tocai, Verduzzo Friulano, Picolit, Refosco, Schioppettino, Pignolo or Tazzelenghe. A market choice, that the market itself appears to reward, attracted by the secrets of these regional treasures. Treasures that must be nurtured, safeguarded, defended and pampered. Thus, the step between the vine to the institution and from communication to the market is small and part of the same, greater plan. Walking between the vines while hunting for parasites and developing treatments to eradicate them, experimenting with new oenological techniques and studying their progress, and dialoguing with institutions for the definition of agricultural policy are the activities that fill our increasingly busy days in a constant commitment to discover, improve and express the talents of our wines, our territory and ourselves.
 
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