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Percentage of rosé sold in the five months between May and September last year, according to a report in Seven Fifty Daily. Five years ago, most rosé sales were limited to just the main three summer months. In France (where rosé sales now exceed white wine sales), rosé has become a year-round beverage, especially popular at ski resorts in wintertime.

Of the following famous grapes from the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region of northern Italy, which is not a white grape variety?

A. Vitovska

B. Ribolla Gialla

C. Schioppettino

D. Picolit

Schioppettino is one of the top red varieties grown in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, a region famed for its white wines. However, schioppettino nearly disappeared from Friuli in the wake of phylloxera. The owner of Ronchi di Cialla winery, Paolo Rapuzzi, rescued the grape in the 1970s when he collected 100 extant vines and clandestinely had them grafted to make them available for propagation (schioppettino was not an officially allowed variety in Friuli at the time). Wines made from schioppettino can be startling—hauntingly dry with sharp peppery, spicy, black cherry flavors and a tight, angular body. The word schioppettino comes from scoppiettio, to “crackle” or “pop,” a possible reference to the grape’s or wine’s fascinating texture.

“Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air.”

—Ralph Waldo Emerson
American poet (1803-1882)

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