Friuli's most invisible yet incredible wine Pignolo with author Ben Little

Pignolo is promising red grape variety native to the friuli region of northeast Italy, probably first cultivated in the hills of Rosazzo in the colli orientali. Pignolo is a very shy bearer and it was generally ignored by local growers who preferred other, more productive grape varieties until, like schioppettino, it was given a new lease of life by a EU decree of 1978 authorizing its use in the province of Udine. Total plantings of Pignolo Nero were only 93 ha/230 acres according to the 2010 vine census.Pignolo is native of the Friuli Venezia Giulia region, in the northeaster corner of Italy With Ben Little, we talk about the story of Friulan wines and how Pignolo fits or not in what is Friuli wines in the popular minds.First comes the history of Pignolo in the context of the history of its native region, Friuli Venezia Giulia in Italy’s upper right-hand corner. A really interesting explanation of how Pignolo, wine, and the region evolved. Then the history shifts a bit to author Ben Little’s personal experience with Pignolo, which started only a few years ago (2016) but developed quickly and soon involved many others. There is much of a technical nature to learn through Little’s first person reports.Ben Little recently release a whopping 492 pages long ode to Pignolo Book called – Pignolo, Cultivating the invisible.In our conversation we talked about Pignolo, the history and the wider geopolitical influences of this deeply dark red skinned variety. We talked about how it can create some of the most soulful wines produced in Italy and much more If you wuold like to learn more about the book and pignolo here are some links https://shop.themorningclaret.com/collections/books/products/pignolo-cultivating-the-invisible-by-ben-littlehttps://www.wine-searcher.com/grape-1524-pignolohttps://www.thenativegrapes.comAs always remember the follow/subscribe to the Podcast and to tell your friends!