Friuli

Friuli

Admittedly, the entire wine region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, is somewhat convoluted geographically. Many simply call it Friuli for simplicity's sake, but even so. Friuli itself is located around the cities of Trieste and Udine and borders Austria and Slovenia. Clearly, the mineral soils lead to arguably the most famous white wines in Italy. In the west, red wines dominate, mostly from the international grape varieties Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Do you know the autochthonous red wine varieties of the region that are on the rise?

Pignolo and Refosco when it comes to blue grapes. Among the whites, Friulano, Ribolla Gialla, Piccolit or Verduzzo stand out, but of course international representatives such as Chardonnay, Pinot Gris or Sauvignon Blanc are always good for surprises in this region. No surprise: also here the Glera (in former times they called it confusingly Prosecco) may be processed to foaming Prosecco. All clar? Be that as it may, the Colli in the wine-growing region of Friuli Venezia Giulia cover a total of about 20,000 hectares of vineyards, and today one can easily claim that the region has become the white wine center of Italy, which was not at all the case in the 1960s. Today, almost 50 percent of all bottled wines are classified as DOC or DOCG, a value that is comparatively high.