Enzo Pontoni is a uniquely talented man. He neglects to be defined as anything more than a farmer, spending every minute of every day (except for lunch) in the vineyards. Born into a family of sharecroppers, Enzo grew up on a farm and learned at a young age how to be useful. At the age of 14, he went to work in a factory as a metalworker with heavy machinery before eventually returning to Buttrio to work on a mobile bottling unit. One day, out of genuine curiosity, Enzo asked a winemaker on the truck if he would teach him something about vineyards and cellar techniques but to this, the winemaker replied: You have to do it yourself. You have to gain your own experiences. And so he did. A passionate reader, Enzo took to the books and began studying, experimenting and gaining considerable knowledge about Burgundy. The work in the vineyards came naturally to him. In 1987 Enzo’s family had a “frasca” (a small, local tavern) where they sold the family wine in bulk. The first bottles came out in 1985 and thanks to a local winemaker and friend, Tullio Zamò, the wines started to gain traction with restaurants and critics.

The wines of Miani, all single vineyard expressions, are particularly noted for having famously low yields (10 hectoliters/hectare) as Enzo refuses to compromise his ideas of clean viticulture and respecting the environment first and foremost. Similarly, he has been known to skip a vintage or a wine without qualm. Each parcel is handled uniquely and with pride, from the vineyard to the cellar.

Enzo is notoriously soft spoken, living humbly with his mother just steps from his cellar. He is rumored not to have left Friuli for nearly twenty years, speaking to his love and admiration for farming and for crafting incredibly profound wines. While he learned the crafts of farming from his father, Nello, the winery is named after his mother’s maiden name, Miani.

Enzo owns 15 hectares of vineyards in the Colli Orientali area of Friuli, scattered between Buttrio, Rosazzo and Gramogliano plus a few hectares for rent. All terrain is hilly with classic Friulian ponca, a stratification of marl and sandstone dating back 60-80 million years ago. Though ponca is poor in nitrogenous substance, vines have always found maximum expression here.

Enzo’s vineyards each have a different recipe, like a father recognizing how to promote or punish each of his children. Miani practices a method that could be coined as “uncompromised viticulture,” nourishing the soils with green manure and planting legumes and grasses amongst the vines in October that are cut in April before flowering. The legumes offer nitrogenous substance to the soil while grassing increases the lift of the soil and aerates the roots by giving them oxygen. When the soils are moist, Enzo never uses a tractor in the vineyards to avoid compressing the clay components inherent to the soils, an error that can take years for vines to recover vitality. Over the years, Enzo’s style has evolved as he continues to experiment in the vineyards, passing from precision pruning with two bunches per plant to a less interventionist and more natural philosophy. In any case, his yields are extremely low and output is minuscule.

A simple cellar holds an array of stainless steel vessels, cement, and barrels from various tonnelerie in Burgundy and Bordeaux in the optic of granting each individual parcel an ideal aging vessel according to the characteristics of the vineyard. There is no recipe nor standard protocol in this winery, but Miani wines as of late (since 2015) rely only on natural yeasts without interfering with the natural temperature of fermentation. Wines are aged generously in barrique (light to medium toast, from a range of different French tonnelerie) though the oak regime for each is different. Until 2000, Pontoni put his wines through full malolactic fermentation. After a long hiatus, he recommenced in 2013 having understood that the wines from the 90s have evolved better. After his acquisition of the Zitelle vineyard in 2012, Enzo began experimenting with adding no SO2 at harvest. His red wines underwent a huge stylistic shift in 2013, using a less extreme approach in the vineyards and gentler winemaking yielding wines with more finesse and nuance as opposed to muscular style that Miani was known for in early vintages.