Sirch Azienda Agricola

Pierpaolo and Luca Sirch have spent the past couple of decades turning their family’s small winery into a business that reaches far beyond its Fruili home. Their vineyards are scattered among the eastern hills running up to the Slovenian border; it’s a more expensive and more awkward way to work, but it allows Pierpaolo and Luca to match each variety to the appropriate soil, aspect and microclimate. The estate’s white wines are built on the Friulian classics, including Friulano and Ribolla Gialla.

The soil here is ponca, a marl and sandstone that breaks down readily and forces vines to root deep. Planted on steep terraces, the vines catch two competing air currents: cool wind rolling down from the mountains, and milder air drifting up from the Adriatic. The interaction between the two is part of what makes Colli Orientali one of Italy’s most coveted white wine landscapes.

The winery itself is located at Cividale del Friuli, founded by Julius Caesar as Forum Iulii. The Tempietto Longobardo, an eighth-century oratory with magnificent stucco figures, still stands above the gorge of the mountain river that passes through the vineyards.