It is usually wide, spread with many grape berries different from each other in size. It is usually winged, with one or two wings clearly visible. The grape is almost spherical, blue-black in colour and has a waxy peel. It generally has two large grape seeds.

It is undoubtedly the best wine of Friuli because of its long aging. If vinified in soft contact with the peels, the wine obtained is ready for the consumption and stands out for its characteristic grassy and intense flavor, so penetrating to taste like grape in your mouth. On the other hand, if vinified with long maceration, the wine obtained is full-bodied, robust, tannic, wild and almost always low in alcohol, but with a remarkable richness and intensity of scents. The wine is ruby red in colour, tending to purple, or pomegranate-coloured when it’s aged.

This vine is original from the French Gironde, an area that straddles the rivers Garonne and Dordogne. This variety arrived in Italy in the early decades of 1800. It produces grapes that are vinified alone or combined with Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot. Among the black grape varieties, this is the second most widespread in the Friuli region.