Schioppettino: The Friulian Red That Peppers Like Syrah and Almost Died Trying

Schioppettino is pronounced skyoh-peh-TEE-noh.

The peppery kick you love in a good northern-Rhone Syrah has a name: rotundone. Schioppettino is loaded with it too, which means you can get that same cracked-peppercorn snap for a lot less recognition tax. The catch is that this grape almost didn't survive to tell you about it.

What it tastes like

Start with the pepper. Schioppettino carries a high dose of rotundone, the aromatic compound behind the peppery streak in Syrah, so the first thing you notice is savory spice rather than sweet fruit. Underneath sits red and blue fruit, raspberry and a little blueberry, with a floral violet note lifting the top.

It is medium-bodied and high in acidity, which is what keeps it from feeling heavy. Tannins are present but polite, more structure than grip. If you are used to a big, oaky New World Syrah, this will feel leaner and cooler, closer to the taut, savory end of the Rhone than to a jammy fruit bomb. Alcohol tends to run moderate, so it drinks with dinner instead of dominating it.

The name itself means something like "little crackle" or "gunshot," a nod either to the pop of the ripe berries or the crackle the wine once had in its lightly sparkling versions. Most serious bottles today are still and dry.

Back from about seventy vines

Schioppettino has papers. It shows up in a Prepotto marriage record from 1282, which is a long resume for a grape most drinkers have never met. Then phylloxera and mildew tore through Friulian vineyards in the late 1800s, and when growers replanted, they reached for fashionable French varieties instead. Schioppettino was left to fade. By the early 1970s many assumed it was gone.

It was one grower's stubbornness that saved it. Paolo Rapuzzi of Ronchi di Cialla went looking in 1970 and turned up roughly seventy surviving vines near Prepotto. He propagated them, weathered legal obstacles and an earthquake that wrecked his cellar, and released a first bottling in 1977. A 1978 decree cleared the way for planting in the Udine province, other producers followed, and the cuttings that stock Italy's vine nurseries today trace back to those rescued plants. That is why the grape is now a recognized part of the Colli Orientali del Friuli DOC rather than a footnote.

Bottles to look for

Ronchi di Cialla is the reference point, since the Rapuzzi family is the reason the grape exists in commercial quantity at all; their Schioppettino di Cialla is the benchmark and priced accordingly. For something more everyday, Petrussa makes a well-regarded Schioppettino di Prepotto that shows the grape's pepper-and-raspberry character without the collector premium. Vigna Petrussa is another Prepotto name worth a look.

Rooting for a grape like this is easy until you try to buy it, and here is the honest part: production is tiny, US allocations are thin, and you may strike out at a normal wine shop entirely. Older or underripe frizzante-style bottles can also come across as sharp and a little thin, so if your first taste disappoints, it is worth trying a still, dry bottling from a good vintage before you write the grape off. There is no single famous score to point you to here. This is a wine you find on the recommendation of a good importer, not on a shelf-talker.

Where to buy

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US availability is real but limited, mostly through specialist importers and better independent shops that carry Friulian wine. Search by name and grab it when you see it rather than expecting it to always be in stock.

browse Schioppettino on Wine.com →

— Chris Berry

If you're switching from a famous grape

If Syrah is your peppery house red, Schioppettino is the natural lateral move: same rotundone-driven black-pepper signature, but leaner, brighter, and far less likely to be over-oaked. You give up some weight and power; you gain lift, food-friendliness, and a story worth telling at the table. See Wines Like Syrah for the full set of swaps, or jump straight to Order This Instead.

Part of Lesser-Known Wines: 17 Obscure Grapes Worth Switching To — the full underdog-swap guide.