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

Disclosure: some links here are affiliate links — if you buy through them I may earn a small commission, at no extra cost to you. Learn more You must be 21+ to buy alcohol in the United States.Wine.com is the seller: they take the payment, ship the bottle and handle returns, and what's available depends on the state you pick at checkout. I never see your order.

US availability is real but limited, mostly through specialist importers and better independent shops that carry Friulian wine. At our retail partner there are exactly three Schioppettino bottlings today, and all three are in stock — unusual for this grape, and worth acting on rather than bookmarking.

Start with Ronchi di Cialla's Rinera, the estate's entry bottling and the cheapest honest way into the grape. It comes from the family who went looking for the surviving vines in 1970. The least expensive bottle here is also the closest thing this grape has to a reference point.

Ronchi di Cialla Rinera Schioppettino 2023 (opens on Wine.com) →Around $27 · checked September 2026

I Clivi's 2023 sits at roughly the same money, if you want a second house's reading before you settle on what Schioppettino is. I have not tasted it. Take it as an opinion to form rather than one I am handing you.

I Clivi Schioppettino 2023 (opens on Wine.com) →Around $28 · checked September 2026

The serious bottle, if the grape lands for you, is the estate's single-vineyard Schioppettino di Cialla. Four years older. About twice the price.

Ronchi di Cialla Schioppettino di Cialla 2019 (opens on Wine.com) →Around $51 · checked September 2026

The catch: three bottles is the whole catalogue, and two of them come from one estate. A sell-out means waiting for the next vintage, not switching producer.

— 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.