Ribolla Gialla is a white variety of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, grown mainly in the Collio and the Colli Orientali; across the border, in Slovenian Brda, it is Rebula. It is documented in the region from the Middle Ages, making it one of the historic grapes of this corner of Italy.
Its technical peculiarity is the skin: thick, substantial, and not especially aromatic. Fermented in steel it gives a taut, citrus, saline white of great drinkability. But that same skin made it the emblem of maceration: at Oslavia, in the Collio, growers returned in the late 1990s to fermenting white grapes on their skins for weeks, reviving an old practice of this eastern border. From there the so-called orange wines re-entered the world's argument about wine.
In our database it also appears as a sparkling base, in Brut and Extra Dry versions: a more recent, commercial use. It has nothing to do with Ribolla Nera, which is a different variety related to Schioppettino.
