Ribolla Gialla

Ribolla Gialla ranks among the oldest recorded grapes of north-eastern Italy. A wine called Rabola appears in a dispute settled in 1296 between a Venetian monastery and the Bishop of Trieste. Three years later, in 1299, the city of Udine presented Girardo da Camino with gifts that included two conzi of Rabiola (a conzo being an old measure of roughly 85 litres). In 1402 Udine passed a law banning the adulteration of Ribolla wine, and by the fourteenth century the grape was widely grown across Friuli and Istria. Phylloxera and, later, a fashion for French varieties sharply reduced plantings. The long-repeated link with the Pucinum of Pliny has no firm support.

The grape is distinct from Ribolla Verde, which is close to extinct. Ribolla Nera is not its dark-skinned mutation either, since that name in fact belongs to Schioppettino. Pignoletto is the grape behind the Rébola of Rimini, Ribolla Spizade turns out to be Prosecco Lungo, and Greek Robola is an unrelated grape. Microsatellite work published in 2013 showed Italian Ribolla Gialla and Slovenian Rebula to share the same genotype, and suggested a probable full-sibling link with Robola. Research from 2014 detected a second-degree relationship with Gouais Blanc, excluded a cross between Gouais Blanc and Traminer, and raised the possibility that Ribolla, Gouais Blanc and the Schiava group trace back to one shared area of origin. A 2010 Slovenian survey recorded notable clonal diversity across Brda, Collio and Istria.

Ribolla Gialla ripens in mid-season, and harvest in the Collio usually falls in mid to late September. Fertility is low, so crops stay modest, and the vine is prone to millerandage (uneven berry set) and to bunch rot, which favours airy, sloping sites and careful canopy work. The berries are small with thick skins, which suits long maceration and helps hold acidity. Much of the best fruit grows on ponca, the Eocene flysch of alternating marl and sandstone layers that crumble into poor, granular soils. Wide day and night temperature swings in the Colli Orientali are credited with preserving aromatics.

Traditional Ribolla Gialla is light-bodied, high in acidity and sometimes lightly floral, with lemon, green apple and white blossom. More concentrated versions show deeper colour, yellow stone fruit, almond or hazelnut and a stony, saline finish, although barrel fermentation and ageing have given uneven results. Skin contact is now common: a few days adds texture, while makers in Oslavia and Brda macerate for weeks or months, producing amber wines with tannin, tea and dried-apricot notes. Josko Gravner ferments and macerates in clay amphorae, and Radikon uses long maceration in large oak vats. Its acidity and modest alcohol also suit sparkling wine, usually made by the tank method as a dry Spumante in Friuli.