When we talk about great wines, before the grape variety there is the soil. In the Colli Orientali del Friuli, home to the Rocca Bernarda estate of Terre dei Cavalieri, the soil has a name of its own: ponca.
It is a distinctive terrain, and it gives Friulian wines a good part of their character. Understanding what ponca is helps explain why the wines of this area, and Picolit above all, are so recognisable.
What ponca is
Ponca is a soil formed of alternating layers of marl and sandstone. It is typical of the Colli Orientali del Friuli and of the region’s hill country. It flakes apart easily and, though poor, it is rich in minerals.
For the vine it is an ideal terrain: it drains water well, it forces the roots to reach deep, and it passes on to the grapes a minerality and a finesse that are hard to find elsewhere.
Why terroir matters
Terroir is the combination of soil, climate, exposure and human hand that makes a wine unique and tied to the place it comes from. On the ponca of the Colli Orientali, the vines yield grapes with an elegant aromatic profile and a marked acidity, which is what lies behind the longevity and freshness of the wines.
It is no accident that this area is considered one of the finest in Italy for quality white wines.
Rocca Bernarda and Picolit
Rocca Bernarda has a long-standing link with Picolit, one of the rarest and most prized sweet wines in Italy. It is the ponca itself, with its capacity to give structure and minerality, that helps make this wine so particular.
Picolit is rare by nature: the variety yields very little, and every bottle is the result of patient work. The earth of the Colli Orientali is where that rarity begins.
From the soil to the glass
Knowing about ponca makes for better tasting. That minerality you sense in a Friulian white, that acid tension that keeps the wine alive, that elegance that never tires: they begin, first of all, with the soil.
This is what is beautiful about wine tied to its place: in every sip there is something that comes from a long way off, from the earth itself. At Rocca Bernarda, that earth is the ponca of the Colli Orientali.
