Ribolla Gialla I Clivi 2023

The love for wine comes unexpectedly from the Clivi: Ferdinando, an accountant, works in his father's tavern, in the lower province of Treviso, where the environment is a bit, the economic constraints lead him to accept a proposal work in the transport sector in West Africa. Until that moment he never managed to get involved in the wine of taverns, at the time far from the research and close to a decidedly acrid taste.
The journey to distant lands allows him to visit other countries and to open up to different cultures and above all to taste important wines and to understand that wine is not just that of osteria. In the mid-90s, from Africa, he plans to buy a vineyard in Friuli, his wife's homeland, and partly with only a small vineyard of two hectares of old vines on the southern slope of Monte Quarin.

Then comes Mario, Ferdinando's son who after studying Economics in Milan, returns to Friuli and in his spare time from the civil service, devotes himself to the vines: the concrete contact with the land after years of abstract studies becomes a beneficial substance that Mario will definitely fall in love with wine.
Learn vineyard techniques, then dedicate yourself to the cellar. These are the years in which the selected yeasts are very popular and the hints of banana and passion fruit are the aromas selected for everyone. He immediately understood that wine should not be created in a laboratory, but helped to express itself while maintaining its integrity. They cultivate Friulano, Malvasia, Verduzzo, Ribolla Gialla. They begin to vinify the grapes separately and without asking anyone's help they immediately have good intuitions, reducing the steps in winemaking, they do not clarify or torchiano. The most important intuition concerns the press: they realize that many people do an excellent job in the vineyard and in the cellar but the press is often too overgrown to oxidize the must and make too much dregs. They buy a German press and this will help to express their vision of wine to the best of their ability.

In 2018, in addition to the general economic crisis, the vines are cut down by blight and this results in a huge loss on production but at the same time this leaves, like any negative experience, a great legacy: this difficult moment will be the teaching of what they want to get from their wines . Lightness as a value of lightness and not as poverty, freshness as a departure from the buttery and hyper-concentrated wines, alcoholic moderation to follow the tradition of these lands.
Some would call them wines by subtraction. "Less is more" according to Mario and Ferdinando Zanusso.
The grapes are pressed after about 20 days of maceration. Bottling without filtration and clarification.