Why it matters
The producer
Cantina di Bertiolo started as a cooperative of some of the oldest farming families in the Grave del Friuli, pooling parcels across the gravelly western plain of Friuli-Venezia Giulia when the winery was founded in 1960. Its commercial brand, CABERT, has carried that heritage for decades.
The cooperative operates across three distinct lines. CABERT is the founding range, holding the winery's heritage and commercial volume. Casali Roncali is the premium tier, drawing fruit from Friuli Colli Orientali DOC, a hillier appellation east of the Grave plain, and aimed at single-variety expressions with more concentration and aromatic depth. Villa San Martino occupies the approachable, everyday end: fresh, fruity, and light.
Place and vineyards
Where the wines begin
Bertiolo sits in Udine province in the western part of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, roughly midway between the Adriatic coast and the foothills of the Dolomites. The Grave del Friuli zone where the cooperative farms is a broad, flat plain built on glacially deposited material: alluvial gravel and stone mixed with chalk and dolomite fragments washed down over millennia from the mountains to the north. The soils drain freely, stress the vines moderately, and hold warmth through the growing season.
The climate runs warm during the day, fed by Adriatic air moving inland, and cools sharply at night as air flows down from the Dolomites. That daily range is the condition that allows aromatic white grapes to accumulate perfume without losing acidity. Sauvignon Blanc is particularly responsive to it: the grape builds intensity during the warm hours and holds freshness through the cold nights.
In the cellar
Vineyards and cellar
Grave del Friuli vineyards are farmed on flat or gently undulating ground, with the free-draining gravelly soils limiting irrigation needs and keeping yields moderate by cooperative standards. The stony surface reflects heat upward during ripening, adding warmth to the lower vine canopy.
Casali Roncali Sauvignon Blanc is cool-fermented, a cellar choice that preserves the grape's characteristic aromatic compounds: the thiols and pyrazines that express as grapefruit, elderflower, and passion fruit in the glass. Cool fermentation slows the process and keeps volatile aromatics in the wine rather than letting them escape with heat.
Wines to know
The range in view
Three lines divide the portfolio by appellation, ambition, and price.
CABERT is the founding range and the cooperative's commercial range. Wines here carry the heritage of the Grave del Friuli and the cooperative's 60-year history.
A useful way in
A bottle to begin with
Start with the Casali Roncali Sauvignon Blanc. It is the wine that defines what the cooperative has built in Friuli Colli Orientali: cool-fermented Sauvignon, aromatic and fresh, from a hillside appellation with more grip and concentration than the flat Grave plain vineyards would produce. Grapefruit, elderflower, passion fruit on the nose; clean, fresh acidity on the palate; a dry finish that does not trail off. The 96-point Luca Maroni ranking for the 2023 vintage places it objectively among the top Italian whites of its year. It earns that position on aroma and acidity, not on barrel weight or residual sweetness.