Friuli Aquileia DOC

The strip of Friulian plain behind the lagoon of Grado, running north through Aquileia to the star-shaped fortress town of Palmanova. It is flat country in a region famous for its hills, and its case rests on soil rather than slope.

The Terroir The registered file describes the zone as the band of land facing the Laguna di Grado and continuing north towards Aquileia as far as Palmanova. The soils of the Aquileian plain are predominantly clayey with a sandy component, rich in mineral detritus, formed over millennia by alluvial action, and they present what the file calls an incredible variability: gravelly veins alternate with yellowish marls and darker clays. The climate is temperate thanks to the nearby sea and the shelter offered by the mountains — the Alps stop the north wind, the Adriatic moderates the rest.

The History The file is unusually well grounded. Aquileia has been a zone of production, commercialisation and consumption of wine since the period of ancient Rome, it says, as ancient writings and the finding of amphorae and drinking glasses testify. Aquileia was founded as a colony in 181 BC and became one of the largest cities of the Empire, the gateway between Italy and the Danube provinces; the fourth-century mosaic floor of its basilica is the largest surviving from the early Christian world.

Grape Varieties The full Friulian range. Among the whites, Friulano, Malvasia Istriana, Verduzzo Friulano, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Traminer, Riesling and Müller-Thurgau; among the reds, Refosco dal Peduncolo Rosso, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon. Still, frizzante, sparkling and rosé are all covered.

The Critical Take Aquileia is the plain, and in Friuli the plain is where the region’s reputation is not made — Collio and the Colli Orientali have the hills, the slope and the marl, and they take the attention and the price. That is broadly fair, and it obscures something. The gravelly veins the file mentions are real, and where a vineyard sits on them rather than on the heavier clay the wines have genuine cut. Refosco does well here, and the Malvasia Istriana can be excellent. Expect competent and inexpensive; occasionally you get considerably better.

Palmanova The northern limit of the zone is a nine-pointed star, laid out by Venice in 1593 as a fortress against the Ottomans and the Habsburgs and never once attacked. It is a UNESCO site and the most complete Renaissance ideal city actually built.

At the Table Friulian and lagoon cooking: frico, prosciutto di San Daniele, brodetto from Grado, grilled eel, and Montasio. Whites at 10–12°C, Refosco at 16–17°C.

Benchmark Producers Tenuta Ca’ Bolani, bought by the Zonin family in 1970 and now, at 550 hectares of vineyard, the largest single vineyard holding in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, and Tenuta Beltrame.