Italy's white-wine north-east plus the birthplace of modern orange wine at Oslavia
Italy's premier white-wine region in the north-east corner between Venice, the Dolomites and Slovenia, where the Collio and Colli Orientali ponca slopes anchor Friulano and Pinot Grigio benchmarks, Oslavia hosts the global orange-wine movement at Gravner, Radikon, La Castellada and Damijan Podversic, and Carso limestone gives Vitovska its briny saline edge.
Every vineyard, tasting room, wine bar and cellar we cover in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, pinned. Click a pin for the page.
The iconic bottles that define Friuli-Venezia Giulia.
Producer: gravner
The qvevri-fermented Ribolla Gialla that Josko Gravner introduced at Oslavia in 2001 after a 1990s study trip through Kakheti in Georgia, vinified in clay buried below the cellar floor.
Price: EUR 80 to 130 at retail
Producer: radikon
The Oslavia Ribolla of the Radikon cellar, started by Stanko Radikon in the mid 1990s on the ponca slope above Gorizia and now run by his sons Sasa and Ivan after his death in 2016.
Price: EUR 65 to 95 at retail
Producer: radikon
The Friulano cuvée renamed Jakot at the 2008 vintage in protest at the EU Tocai-Tokaj ruling, vinified on skins for several months in the same Oslavia cellar as Ribolla.
Price: EUR 45 to 70 at retail
Producer: la-castellada
The Oslavia Ribolla of the Bensa brothers at La Castellada, one of the four Oslavia hill cellars whose extended-maceration programmes anchored the orange-wine revival at the turn of the 2000s.
Price: EUR 45 to 75 at retail
Producer: damijan-podversic
The flagship white blend of Damijan Podversic at the Oslavia-adjacent cellar above Gorizia, fermented on skins for around two months in open wood vats.
Price: EUR 50 to 80 at retail
Producer: schiopetto
The cru Friulano of Mario Schiopetto's Capriva del Friuli cellar, where late-1960s temperature-controlled fermentations set the modern technical baseline for Collio white wine.
Price: EUR 45 to 65 at retail
A handful of the estates we send friends to when they are in Friuli-Venezia Giulia.
Family cellar at Oslavia run by Josko Gravner alongside daughters Mateja and Jana. Gravner shifted from temperature-controlled stainless steel to open-vat fermentations on the skins in 1997 after journeys to Georgia and buried his first qvevri amphorae in 2001. The 18 estate hectares on the ponca slopes above Oslavia are now Gravner's only fruit source, and every cuvée goes through extended skin contact, qvevri ageing and oak elevage before release. The cellar is the reference point for the modern orange-wine movement.
Signature: gravner-ribolla, gravner-bianco-breg, gravner-rosso-breg, gravner-rujno
Stanko Radikon began extended-skin-contact whites in 1995 at Oslavia, the year before Josko Gravner's parallel turn. His sons Sasa and Ivan have run the cellar since Stanko's 2016 death.
Signature: radikon-ribolla, radikon-oslavje, radikon-jakot, radikon-slatnik
Bensa family cellar at Oslavia founded in 1985 by brothers Giorgio and Nicolò Bensa. Now run with the next generation Stefano and Matteo Bensa.
Signature: la-castellada-ribolla, la-castellada-bianco-della-castellada, la-castellada-friulano, la-castellada-rosso-della-castellada
Damijan Podversic established his own cellar in 1999 after years of working with Josko Gravner. The 12 hectares climb Monte Calvario above Gorizia city, sharing the ponca slope with the Oslavia houses.
Signature: damijan-podversic-ribolla, damijan-podversic-kaplja, damijan-podversic-nekaj, damijan-podversic-prelit
Founded in 1965 by Mario Schiopetto at the former Palazzo Arcivescovile of the Aquileia patriarchate at Capriva del Friuli. Schiopetto introduced temperature-controlled stainless-steel fermentations to Friuli in the late 1960s, establishing the modern technical baseline for clean, fruit-forward Pinot Grigio and Friulano. The estate, now under the Rotolo family, farms 30 hectares of Collio ponca and bottles around 250,000 bottles a year.
Signature: schiopetto-friulano, schiopetto-pinot-grigio, schiopetto-mario-schiopetto, schiopetto-rivarossa
Founded in 1956 by Marco Felluga, the senior brother of Livio Felluga, the cellar built the Russiz Superiore property at Capriva del Friuli into one of the Collio's modern reference estates.
Signature: marco-felluga-molamatta, marco-felluga-mongris, marco-felluga-pradius
Four amphora-and-extended-skin-contact cellars within walking distance, with the Sabotin ridge above and the World War I ossuary just up the road.
Town-square Collio. Enoteca Comunale pours every member producer by the glass, the Friday market sets the week's pace, and the cellars are walking distance from the train station.
Estate-clustered Collio where the Felluga and Schiopetto legacies anchor the village, with Castello di Spessa's golf course doubling as the visitor's other landmark.
High-Collio terroir on the Slovenian frontier, where Venica & Venica's cool-climate Sauvignon sets the bar and Livio Felluga's Brazan parcel cooks the appellation's most age-worthy whites.
Hilltop frontier commune where the Collio hill rolls straight over to the Slovenian Brda side of the appellation.
UNESCO Lombard town with a Roman backbone, where the Tempietto Longobardo overlooks the Natisone river and Strada del Vino routes wine tourists into the Colli Orientali hills.
Peak wine-travel season in Friuli-Venezia Giulia is spring through autumn, with harvest the standout window.
classified-growth and grand-cru estates require booking days to weeks ahead; smaller family domaines often take walk-ins midweek.
most estates open 10:00 to 17:00 by appointment, often closed Sunday and Monday.
tipping is not expected at tastings; buying a bottle from the cellar door is the customary thank-you.
If you only open one bottle, open Gravner Ribolla by gravner. It is the wine most associated with Friuli-Venezia Giulia.