The Legendary Livio Felluga
We visit legendary Livio Felluga - although we meet Matteo,his export director, not the man himself. And we eat more food. By Kate
We are greeted at the Felluga winery by Matteo and follow him in the cars up to a site in the Rosazzo hills. The landscape is demonstrably different to the flatlands of the previous two days, with steep, sudden hills, all adorned with vines.
We stop just below the Rosazzo Abbey and in the cool shade of the parking lot, Matteo fills us in on the history of both Felluga and Fruili. The contemporary history of the latter, more so than anyone else we are visiting, has been directly influenced by the former.
The Abbey is a great location for this, having been founded in 1080 with records from the time showing that the wines from that particular hill were always seen as superior although wine making dates back even further than that. The Celts were growers of grapes and when the Romans arrived in 180 B.C. and established the colony of Aquileia Aquila was a teeming hub of 300,000, protecting from invaders from the north and rivalling Rome
The location of Friuli, on the borders of modern day Austria and Slovenia Friuli had the trees and it also apparently had the artisans and so a wholesale abandonment of agriculture started to take place.
This is when Livio Felluga seized his chance. Unlike those who were convinced that centuries of farming tradition in the area had come to its natural end, he believed that wine would be an important part of Friuli far into the future. And so he began to buy up land. The Felluga family had been involved in wine making for 4 generations before Livio, although this was in Istria which is now in Croatia Italy
Livio was clearly a far sighted man but perhaps his most important visionary realisation was the fact that while people would begin to drink less, they would also want to drink better and so he began to do some very avant garde things – like bottling his own wines instead of selling them off in bulk. For 1956, that was an extraordinary step to take.
Given that no-one had any idea of where Friuli was and as from the beginning, he had ambitions for his wines beyond his immediate borders, he chose a 16th century map for the labels. These are there to this day and Felluga bottles remain among the most stylish and beautiful I have ever encountered. Happily, what they contain is generally very superior stuff as well.
He also decided to make mainly varietal wines and to display the variety very clearly on the handsome labels. This was an even more astoundingly avant garde idea but it began to work and the more it did, the more land Livio bought. People thought he was crazy but he carried on regardless. Innovation followed innovation and as Livio adopted these, slowly, slowly so too did others in the region. Stainless Steel, temperature control, cutting down considerably on the use of wood in wine making were all measures which he was among the very first to adopt.
Given the character of many of the varieties here, this approach worked wonders both for the Felluga name and the reputation of the region generally. It really is not unlike the Alsace of Italy and modern wine making bought out the same ripe, forward fruit and smoky, honeyed flavours balanced by crisp, fresh minerality as found in the more famous French region – at least in the whites.
The modern Felluga estate has an astonishing 190 hectares and produces 750,000 bottles of wine. Although they are not yet organic, they work very carefully and apparently aim to be so in the near future although Matteo does not give a definite time frame.
We are standing directly beneath the historic Abbey as from July 1st, the winery started a new 20 year lease on their 18 historic hectares of land. The fruit from this will go into a single vineyard white blend but at this point, Matteo did not have details on variety(ies).
Back into the cars and off to another hill top venue, this one looking out over swathes of Felluga vineyards. We are in the garden of what Matteo calls the ‘party house’, a venue dedicated to the entertaining of Felluga guests.
It is heart stoppingly hot. So much so that flopping onto cool green grass and drifting off to sleep seems the only remotely sensible option. But there is wine to taste and, unbelievably after the mammoth eat-a-thon of only last night, more things to put in our mouths.
We start with the Sharis, a blend of 60% Chardonnay and 40% Ribolla Giallo. Typically Friulian, it is richly smoked but with a fresh, mineral finish which keeps it drinkable. Or as drinkable as anything is on a day like today. The idea of putting anything other than cold water and iced lollies etc in my mouth seems barbaric in the extreme.
Matteo explains that they have always harvested slightly earlier for their whites, looking for maximum freshness. With the trend towards making ever more ungainly wines, often with 14 – 15% abv, they are now harvesting a lot earlier than some. They have never wanted to make the big style and a recent renovation in the winery was all about making them even less interventionist than before. They tend not to use wood (although there are exceptions) and most of their whites have around 2 months of lees ageing after fermentation.
I ask about people like Princic (who we stock) and Zitovska who are also working in Friuli and who are doing very cutting edge things like macerating on skins throughout fermentation for whites and not doing anything at all to protect from oxidation etc. Matteo does not seem to know of these but says that this is in fact this is the most traditional Friulian wine-making, exactly the style that Felluga was working against.
There was a time when most of the wines from here were transported over the Alps to Vienna
We go inside for lunch.
Aaah, lunch. To the list of assaults that can happen to a person, I think ‘culinary’ should really be added. I don’t wish to trivialise how awful other assaults can be and of course this would, I’m sure, be the assault of choice for most if ever given a choice in such matters. Every time I return from Italy though, I feel sure that if I were faced with the choice between oh, a bit of verbal or physical assault and having to eat 3 multiple course meals in succession, I would take a punch in the face and some bad words every time.
Today’s food is every bit as delicious as last nigh’ts but oh my, there is an awful lot of it. :-
We taste Pinot Grigio (very rich), Friuliano (very good), Pinot Blanc (showing too much wood and too big for me) and of course their flagship white, Terra Alta. This is a blend of 40% Sauvignon Blanc, 30% Friuliano and 30% Pinot Blanc and is truly delicious; doing that very clever thing of starting off amazingly viscous and mouthfilling; all generous fruit and spice only to switch in an instant to a lean, spiced mineral finish. Amazing wine and a long time favourite of mine.
The red Sosso (a Merlot) is equally good and actually emerges as by far the best red of the trip by the end. Matteo then opens a magnum of 1997 Terra Alta which is very kind of him. This is very interesting as compared to the 1997 Piere of the morning, this is still amazingly fresh with almost creamy fruit and an intensely smoky finish. After a while in the glass, crushed herbs begin to emerge.
On any other day, I would have found it quite difficult not to drink a glass but my entire body feels as though it is starting to liquefy from within from the heat, so ingesting alcohol is absolutely not something I really want to be doing. Matteo makes an interesting point that ultimately with wines, the texture of them is more important than the taste for most people as most drinkers don’t sit around actually tasting the wine - they are involved in conversation, eating, doing the dishes etc. What they therefore notice for the length of the glass is how it feels in the mouth.
It is an interesting observation and one which I think is probably often very true although it is also a very handy point to make if you happen to be involved in the selling of wines from a region that makes richly textured whites.
We finish with their Picolit which is as extraordinary as these wines are supposed to be, given the astronomical prices charged. Picolit is a very, very difficult grape to grow as it is one of the only varieties that does not have both male and female flowers, so pollination is a real problem which leads to incredibly small yields. Disasterous for the eventual price, brilliant for quality; giving fruit of immense concentration.
Felluga are the largest producers of this in the region and only make 2,000 50cl bottles a year, which gives you some idea. They ferment very slowly at a very low temperature before aging theirs in barrique for 18 months and then in bottle for a further 18 before release and the results are completely delicious.
I immediately decide that it would be a shameful oversight if a bottle of this was not served at the immanent Italy School of Wine.
We waddle slowly out onto the terrace for coffee. One of our number has already sloped out and is sitting at one of the outside tables with his head on his folded arms. I can completely relate to that posture. Another immediately lies down, full length on a bench and the rest of us slump like the semi dead into the chairs on the shaded terrace. And there is still another visit to go.
We are greeted at the Felluga winery by Matteo and follow him in the cars up to a site in the Rosazzo hills. The landscape is demonstrably different to the flatlands of the previous two days, with steep, sudden hills, all adorned with vines.
Given the character of many of the varieties here, this approach worked wonders both for the Felluga name and the reputation of the region generally. It really is not unlike the Alsace of Italy and modern wine making bought out the same ripe, forward fruit and smoky, honeyed flavours balanced by crisp, fresh minerality as found in the more famous French region – at least in the whites.
Aaah, lunch.
The red Sosso (a Merlot) is equally good and actually emerges as by far the best red of the trip by the end.
Felluga are the largest producers of this in the region and only make 2,000 50cl bottles a year, which gives you some idea.
I immediately decide that it would be a shameful oversight if a bottle of this was not served at the immanent Italy School of Wine.
