Ronc Platat Nuvolaio Rosso 2023
We have 12 in stock (Inventory is live and accurate)
Summer Shipping Advisory: Orders may be temporarily held during periods of extreme heat to ensure wine arrives in optimal condition.
View current shipping weather map →
The Land
Friuli is filed under white wine almost everywhere, which obscures the fact that the Colli Orientali is where Italy's rarest native reds survived. Refosco dal Peduncolo Rosso, Schioppettino, Pignolo and Tazzelenghe all held on in these hills while the rest of the northeast replanted to international varieties. The reason is partly geological. The ponca here, that friable marl-and-sandstone bedrock, warms quickly on the southwest-facing shoulders above the Judrio valley, and those slopes give reds enough heat to finish ripening while the Adriatic, barely thirty kilometers off, keeps the nights cool. The Bora comes through to dry the canopy. Ronc Platat works the southern reach of the appellation, below Rosazzo, where the hills flatten toward the plain and the warmer parcels get picked for red.
The Wine
Nuvolaio Rosso is a red blend of Merlot, Refosco dal Peduncolo Rosso and Cabernet Franc, which is the classic Colli Orientali split: Merlot for flesh, Refosco for the sour-cherry acidity and iron, Cabernet Franc for the leafy top note and spine. It runs around 13.5 percent, and it is aged in French oak, framed rather than flavored. Ripe cherry and plum, dried herb, forest floor and black pepper, with soft tannin, firm acidity and a savory, slightly bitter close that is Refosco's signature. 2023 tested everyone here. April ran about 1.5°C below average, rain fell steadily from April into early June, and summer came in 100 millimeters wetter than normal, which meant brutal downy mildew pressure. Hail hit parts of Friuli on July 12 and 13 and again on July 24 and 25. Then September and October turned dry and warm, and growers who held their nerve and picked late got sound, properly ripe fruit.
The People
Ronc Platat is a garagiste operation in the real sense. Tommaso Zanuttini left a law practice in Milan in 2020 to make wine in the Friulian town he grew up in, and he works with six hectares and fruit sourced from a number of vineyards across the Colli Orientali rather than a single estate block. That buying model is deliberate: it lets him match a parcel to a wine instead of forcing a wine out of whatever he owns. He also co-founded GAF, Garagisti Anonimi Friulani, a collective with five other young Friulian winemakers who share equipment, labor and arguments. Farming is biological, interventions minimal, and the house style leans toward tension and length rather than extract.
Food Pairing
Refosco's acidity makes this a braise wine. Friulian goulash, pork and beef cooked down slowly with sweet paprika, onion and a splash of vinegar, is the native pairing and the obvious one. Grilled radicchio di Treviso, charred until the edges blacken and wrapped in pancetta, plays the wine's bitter finish against itself in the best way. A pork shoulder braised with fennel seed and white wine, shredded and piled on polenta, gives the Merlot something soft to meet. And a wedge of aged Montasio, nutty and salty, to close. Keep a bottle for the first cold Sunday, when the oven has been on since noon.
We ship wine to most states with a $100 minimum order for shipping. We don't ship spirits nor beer.
Weather shipping advisory: Orders placed during times of extreme heat or extreme cold will be held for no charge until more favorable weather returns.
Red Blend is a catch-all for wines built from more than one red grape, a practice as old as winemaking itself and central to many of the world's most celebrated bottles. Blending lets a producer balance what a single variety cannot deliver alone: structure from one grape, perfume from another, flesh and color from a third. Bordeaux, Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Rioja, and the old field blends of Portugal's Douro all fall under this umbrella, as do countless wines from growers who care more about the finished wine than about varietal labeling. Expect enormous range in style, from light and herbal to dense and age-worthy, depending entirely on origin and intent.
