Sirch

For four generations, the Sirch family produced wine at the farm for local consumption only and sold grapes to the cooperative. Only when Giordano Sirch began bottling his own bottles with his son Luca and brother Pierpaolo did it become a winery in 2002.

Father Giordano is the farmer who seems to have inherited the attachment to nature and the region. His son Luca is keen to preserve the high vineyards of the Colline Orientali and to recultivate old regional grape varieties. This is not easy, because in the hills wine-growing is cost-intensive and the prices for wines of this region were usually not sufficient. Most wine growers also supplied large wineries and supermarkets with rather simple wines from Pinot Grigio, Sauvignon and Chardonnay at unprofitable prices. In recent years, several grape suppliers have given up and sold or leased the vineyards to the Sirch family.

Pierpaolo Sirch has made a name for himself as a grape refiner. Together with friend and partner Marco Simonit they reached as "Pruning Guys" even world renown and look after such famous vineyards as those of Château d'Yquem, Cheval Blanc, Ornellaia, Allegrini, Bürklin-Wolf, Artist, Bründlmayer... the list of customers reaches as far as South Africa and California. The vine whisperers bring the "flow" back to the vines, and that's a good thing, because: Over the years, vines are bent into shape. This is usually done in the Guyot system with one bow or in the Cordon training with two bows, from which "eyes" then the rods carrying the foliage and the grapes will be drawn. This often caused the natural veins in the wood to bend and the juices could hardly find their way to the leaves. This "flow" to make the veins flow again unhindered through targeted pruning of the vines, that's what Simonit & Sirch with her team and successfully combat problems in the vineyards, including so-called vine diseases such as Esca.

A family that has dedicated its life and work to healthy vines, one could say. It is only logical that with Alessio Dorigo they have brought one of the best oenologists on board. He was one of the first to recognise the trend towards autochthonous grape varieties and has specialised in them ever since. Today the Sirch family cultivates just over a hundred hectares of vineyards in the beautiful countryside of the hills near Cividale. Many of them still in recultivation or conversion, therefore not yet in earnings. It is a cool microclimate, surrounded by dense forests, influenced by the winds of the mountains of the Austrian-Slovenian border, the nearby Isonzo valley with lakes and waterfalls, as well as the onshore warm winds of the Mediterranean Sea. Steep, stony soils require numerous terraces. The showcase project is around the small town of Cladrecis, the family's ancestral home, in an almost magical hilly area. SUPERIORE.DE