History
Located in Corno di Rosazzo, recognized as one of the most productive wine-making areas of Friuli Venezia Giulia, the Collavini head office resides in the former Villa of the Zucco-Cuccagna noble family.
The winery is set in a fine example of a XVI century fortified residence. Manilo restored the residence and converted the master’s villa into a wine cellar and his own family home.
The turret on the west-facing wall, once built as a point of observation to monitor the surrounding countryside, still gives a glimpse of the marvelous panorama stretching across the hills of Rosazzo, Ruttars and Cormons.
Once in the wine cellar, the senses are completely enraptured by the colors and scents of the old “Turian” vineyard, the same ancient Ribolla Gialla lot where this grape variety was planted again.
Our tradition is to focus on our vineyards and to introduce technological innovations in our cellar.The accurate restoration of our tradition is strictly connected to the attention given to our vineyards and to the technological innovations introduced in the cellar. As an example, we utilize a horizontal orientation of autoclaves, in which our Ribolla Gialla is aged for more than thirty months. Then there is the drying room; a low temperature and ventilated area where the best bunches of grapes are taken to concentrate the aromas and fruit giving body and elegance to the wine.
History
The Collavini story began in 1896 in Rivignano, where the founder Eugenio Collavini supplied wine to the stores which sold to the noble families of Udine.
Eugenio’s son, Giovanni led the winery through the first and the second World Wars. The baton was then passed to Giovanni’s son, Manlio.
Upon taking over the winery, Manlio moved the wine cellars to the most suitable terroirs of Corno di Rosazzo and here Manlio introduced the advanced science of oenology to his vineyards.
Manlio is a pioneer, who produced a new Pinot Grigio fermented off the skins. In 1971, he created Il Grigio, trend-setting sparkling wine, similarly derived from the same Pinot Grigio grapes.
At the end of the same decade, Collavini began producing sparkling Ribolla Gialla, utilizing the same method as IL Grigio.
Despite its current international fame, Collavini remains a family-owned company and continues to be managed by Manlio and his sons Giovanni, Luigi and Eugenio.
At the end of the 1970’s, in order to lay the foundation for a new sparkling wine, Manlio Collavini decided to allocate 4.5 hectares of his vineyards to an ancient and local grape variety called Ribolla Gialla.
According to professor Attilio Scienza, “the Ribolla Gialla is the easternmost grape variety of Friuli Venezia Giulia and was brought to Italy for the first time by the Roman legions, which used to travel from Pannonia to Gaul passing through the Friulian region”.
The final result of Manlio’s work is a new Ribolla Gialla Brut obtained from a reinterpretation of the traditional sparkling wine-making method.
The so-called “Collavini Method”, in fact, originated by integrating together the best advantages of the classic techniques and the Martinotti-Charmant process.
In the following years, 11 more hectares of Ribolla Gialla started to be cultivated on this terroir, which were deemed to be ideal thanks to the marly soil and gentle north-west breeze.
Only the great harmony between these key factors gives us the chance to produce Ribolla Gialla Brut, as a well-balanced and high-quality sparkling wine.