Why it matters
The producer
Sturm makes Pinot Grigio that is copper-pink rather than straw white, and the colour is not cosmetic. It is what happens when the grape spends time on its skins before pressing. Most Collio producers strip the pigment away and deliver a pale, light white. Sturm keeps it, and the wine lands with more weight, more texture, and a fuller aromatic register than the category norm suggests.
The estate sits in Collio, a hilly DOC zone in Friuli Venezia Giulia that traces the Slovenian border. The family has been in this corner of Friuli since the nineteenth century, arriving originally from Andritz in Austria. Oscar Sturm shaped the modern winery and then stepped back, leaving technical decisions to his son Patrick and vineyard and office work to his son Denis. The two brothers now lead the estate together.
Place and vineyards
Where the wines begin
Collio is a strip of hills in the far northeast of Italy, close enough to Slovenia that the appellation runs along the border. The altitude, the morning fog that rolls in from the Isonzo plain, and the afternoon warmth from the Adriatic combine to give grapes a long growing season with marked day-to-night temperature swings. That thermal range preserves acidity and aromatic lift in white grapes, which is why Collio whites tend to carry more freshness and more aromatic definition than whites from the flat Friuli plains to the south.
The appellation covers a range of white varieties, but Pinot Grigio has become its most visible export. Most of that wine is vinified as a clean, pale white with immediate fruit. Sturm's decision to use skin maceration places its Pinot Grigio at a different point in the Collio range: more textured, more savoury, closer to what the grape delivers when fermentation is not designed to strip it back.
In the cellar
Vineyards and cellar
Farming on the Eocene marl parcels is certified organic for the Pinot Grigio Bio. Sustainable methods are used across the estate to protect soil health and improve grape quality. The grapes are harvested by hand and brought to the cellar without oxidative damage.
For the Pinot Grigio Bio, the winemaking begins with cold skin maceration using the Ganimede system. The Ganimede fermenter uses the carbon dioxide produced during fermentation to punch the cap of grape solids up through the liquid rather than punching it down mechanically, which circulates the must gently and extracts colour and tannin from the skins without aggressive contact. Cold maceration slows extraction and keeps the aromatic compounds intact. After maceration, the grapes are soft-pressed and only the free-run juice proceeds to fermentation. Wild yeasts from the vineyard carry the fermentation rather than cultured laboratory strains, which extends the timeline and introduces more complexity to the aromatic base.
Wines to know
The range in view
Pinot Grigio is the lead variety and the wine with the most fully documented production method. The Pinot Grigio Bio is 100 percent Pinot Grigio, certified organic, and vinified through the cold maceration, wild yeast, and split-élevage process described above. At 14 percent alcohol, it is fuller than most Collio whites sold under the Pinot Grigio name. The skin contact pulls copper-pink pigment from the grape's dark skin into the juice, producing the pale œil de perdrix colour that signals the wine's weight before the glass reaches the nose.
The broader Sturm range includes other varieties vinified with a combination of stainless steel and French oak depending on the wine. White grape varieties suited to Collio's soil and climate form the core of this range. The split between tank-only and oak-influenced wines reflects the estate's approach: some wines are built for immediate aromatic expression, others for more weight and development on the lees.
A useful way in
A bottle to begin with
The Pinot Grigio Bio is the bottle to start with. It is 100 percent Pinot Grigio, certified organic, pale copper-pink from cold skin maceration, and fermented with wild yeasts on Eocene marl soils in Collio. It smells of peach, apricot and wisteria. In the mouth it is fuller than the label category prepares most drinkers for: the skin contact has given it body, the lees ageing has given it texture, and the acidity keeps both in check through a crisp, savoury finish. Buy it chilled but not cold, and give it ten minutes in the glass. It explains what skin maceration does to Pinot Grigio more directly than any tasting note can.