Winemaker Notes
Distinct, characteristic bouquet with evident notes of raspberry and wild berries. A pleasant, dry and slightly aromatic palate, with a subtle bitter note and velvetiness.
Professional Ratings
-
James Suckling
Medium-bodied, smooth and soft pinot with ripe-berry character and a chocolatey finish. It’s structured and nicely filled with fruit, adding notes of spice and walnut at the end. Drink now.
-
Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
The 2022 Tunella Pinot Noir is an outstanding value. This wine shows aromas and flavors of savory spices, fragrant, earthy notes, and fresh garden herbs. Try it with rosemary and cracked black peppercorn-topped roast leg of lamb. (Tasted: January 12, 2025, San Francisco, CA)
A few months after the purchase, Livio passes away, leaving Gabriella and two sons (14 year old Massimo and 12 year old Marco) to run the business. She decided to continue the family tradition with a passion and didication equal to her late husband and with the firm commitment and support of her sons. Once he finished school, the very young Massimo began to oversee both the vineyards and cellar, moving into the sales, marketing and business end of the wine industry when brother Marco joins him and shows an interest in and talent for vineyard management.
Today Massimo is Sales Manager for La Tunella, traveling the globe to bring the family's high quality wines to various markets all over Italy and abroad, including Great Britain, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg, Greece, Canada and the United States. Marco is the winery's Vineyard Manager, responsible for 70 hectares of vineyards (more than triple the amount his father started with).
Thin-skinned, finicky and temperamental, Pinot Noir is also one of the most rewarding grapes to grow and remains a labor of love for some of the greatest vignerons in Burgundy. Fairly adaptable but highly reflective of the environment in which it is grown, Pinot Noir prefers a cool climate and requires low yields to achieve high quality. Outside of France, outstanding examples come from in Oregon, California and throughout specific locations in wine-producing world. Somm Secret—André Tchelistcheff, California’s most influential post-Prohibition winemaker decidedly stayed away from the grape, claiming “God made Cabernet. The Devil made Pinot Noir.”
Viticulture has thrived in Colli Orientali del Friuli since the reign of ancient Rome and today its verdant, rolling hills support a long list of autochthonous varieties, each playing a unique and important role in the modern Colli Orientali wine scene.
The region is primarily recognized for its white wines. Its indigenous varieties of Ribolla Gialla, Verduzzo, Picolit and perhaps most importantly, Friulano are made into single varietal wines or blended, and often blended with the international varieties of Sauvignon blanc, Pinot grigio and Pinot bianco. The latter have been flourishing in the area since the 1800s. But it wasn’t until the 1970s when producers started using cold fermentation techniques to produce fresh, fruity, crisp and aromatic whites that this area began to attract international attention.
While reds only make up about a third of the area under vine, Colli Orientali is home to some of Italy’s most exciting and rare red wines. Refosco, Schioppettino, Tazzelenghe and Pignolo are among the autochthonous varieties while Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir also have a stronghold.
Colli Orientali holds much in common with its neighbor, Collio; the only thing dividing them is a political line. Both are influenced by the cooling effects of the Julian Alps and moderated by the Adriatic Sea. A unique soil of alternating marine layers called flysch also dominates Colli Orientali, providing a mineral-rich environment for vine roots and optimal water drainage.