The gently curving hillside called Zegla, close by the border with Slovenia, has long been home to Renato Keber and his family. Renato’s great grandfather, Franc, came from nearby Vipulzano to settle here in 1900, when this was still under Austrian rule. “They were farmers producing fruit, grapes and hay for the Austrian army,” explains Renato as we look east towards the contours of the higher Slovenian hills.
“They made a little wine from their terraced vineyards and sold it by the barrel to the Hapsburg court at Vienna,” he says. “Most of it was Ribolla. In the 1950S we sold to wine merchants who would set their prices here,” says Renato. “It went to innkeepers and osterie.”