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You should be drinkin’ more Friuli…..uli-uli-eh-eh-eh

I am so proud of my title! If that is not a genius connection of pop culture to the topic of this post…..I don’t know what is. I am cracking up as I type. HAHAHA. Literally.

If you don’t get it, then watch the music video below and then laugh….with me or at me, as long as you laugh.



Sooooo, I’m still laughing. HAHAHAHA. I enjoy the fact that I just Rihanna-ized the name of a wine region. Hey! They should ask to use the song to promote their wines! “You should drinkin’ more FRIULI…ULI-ULI-eh-eh-eh.”?? I bet a Youtube promo like that would attract some attention =P I should start Dorky Wine Promotions Inc. !! Hahaha.

Okay, okay, so enough Rihanna-izing, lets get to the juicy part (pun intended).

Now, what is FRIULI…ULI-ULI? Well, it is a wine producing region in Italy. The full name of the region is actually, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, (Gesundheit!) but… here on the VS we shall refer to it as FRIULI…ULI-ULI (pronounced ‘free-you-lee … you-lee, you-lee =P‘). Apparently it was the 3rd most important wine region in Italy, next to Tuscany and Piedmont in terms of quality.

So where the heck is FRIULI…ULI-ULI?

Well it was at ProWein Hall 3 Aisle K Stand 80, duh =P

Okay, so where is FRIULI…ULI-ULI, really…..? It is located in the northeast part of Italy, bordering Austria and Slovenia.

Here it is again, just to give ya the bigga picture.

And what are they famous for?

For HAM!!!! =P

No, really, they are! I am pretty sure I ate the whole cut shown below.

But, FRIULI…ULI-ULI also has a reputation for producing…….vino bianco aka white wine!


Now before I go any further, I have to say I was quite confused going into this post, because I kept hearing this region referred to as just “Friuli”, but all of the material I received at ProWein said “Friuli-Venezia Giulia”. When I went to look them up on Wikipedia, there was separate entries for both, including one for just “Venezia Giulia”. Ahhhhhh!!!! Naturally I had to find out WHY. (go figure, most people’s first word is “Momma” or “Dada”….. mine was “Why”).

Trying to figure out the difference was no easy task….were talkin’ a 3 hour history lesson. So after a very long while and a few glasses of wine I think it began to make sense, so here it goes. WARNING: NERD TIME
So we have a region called Friuli (F), one called Venezia Giulia (VG) and another called Friuli-Venezia Giulia (FVG). So far so good.

So “F” is a historical region that at some point was a former duchy and then was under rule of patriarchs, basically some dudes had sole power over Friuli. It was eventually conquered by various peoples and states, divided, put back together, all very confusing. Now the historically known “F” is divided between “FVG”, NE Italy, and Slovenia.

Then we have “VG”, which was a name given to to all of the territories ceded by Austria to Italy after World War I. Then after World War II most “VG” was ceded by Italy to Yugoslavia. The rest of “VG” remained Italian and was merged with to form the new region of FVG.

So only parts of the original “F” and the original “VG” were left after all the dividing, conquering, ruling, and then combined to form the current Italian region of “FVG”. Lastly, in 1963, Italy gave “FVG” limited autonomy.

WHEW!! That took forever to simplify like that. Seriously. Talk about a history lesson. WHEW! SO CONFUSING! It is only because I love my VS readers and I want you to have some back ground info that I go through these extremes! =P Whew, all that confusing history lesson stuff makes me want to drink….is 3pm too early to start? WHEW!

Well….now you know why the region is called Friuli-Venezia Giulia……but I am still going with the Rihanna-ized name……FRIULI…ULI-ULI.

Now on to the good stuff!

Open Your Senses to the top white wines of FRIULI…ULI-ULI! This is their campaign this year to highlight what they produce best, white wines! FRIULI…ULI-ULI wine production is made up of 60% white wines.

At ProWein, we had a meeting with the director of the Isonzo DOC wine region in FRIULI…ULI-ULI, named Pierpaolo Penco. He is also the Managing Director of the Wine Business Program at the MIB School of Management. I was a bit early so I decided to do a quick photo shoot to look business womaney.

Then somebody came in and said…..”Um, excuse me, this room is reserved.”

And I said……

“No…..EX-COUSSSSE ME!! Do you Kneeooow who I am….? I am kinda important. Do you see this Press Pass? I am The Ceci Sipper, the wine blogger! RUDE!”

Okay, it did not go down like that, but I wanted to use the photos to make a funny story.

Here is the room where we had the meeting with PierPaolo. He spoke about the Italian wine market, the stats and figs, issues facing the Italian wine industry, new endeavors being done to revamp the industry and about the strengths of the Italian wine industry. He spoke about wine as a ‘2 industry market’: one where people think of wine as another beverage, that can be substituted with any other beverage like soda or juice (I obviously do not fall into this category) and the other where wine is seen as a pleasure and is substituted only with other wines (YES, Exactly!) He was nice enough to send us over the powerpoint presentation he had; it will make for a very useful reference in Italian/FRIULI…ULI-ULI wine industry info.

Here is PierPaolo.

Look Mommy, I’m a professional now ;)

Naturally after we talk about wine, we taste it….

It was only half past 12pm, but the song “it’s 5’o clock somewhere” was ringing loud and clear in my head!!


Below are the wines we tasted:

The first one was the 2008 Drius from the Isonzo DOC region in FRIULI…ULI-ULI, from a grape variety called ‘friulano’ (also known as Sauvignon vert). It is the most well known and important varieties of the region and is described as producing wines that are crisp, moderate acidity, moderate-high in alcohol and light notes of fruits, wildflowers, citrus, nuts and herbs. If you cannot find a ‘Friulano’ varietal from FRIULI…ULI-ULI, you can also look for Sauvignon vert from Chile, of course the styles will be a bit different, but different wines are available in different parts of the world and one may be easier for you to find than another. This is a great wine to pair with seafood!!

We then had the opportunity to taste a red wine from the Isonzo DOC, a 2006 Sant’Elena “Tato”. You can see the website and information about the wine here.

The wine was still a bit young to drink, but still big and rich. I definitely picked up on the dark fruits and coffee notes.

The last wine I tried caught my attentions because of the label. Yes, sometimes I am attracted by the label, gasp! It is the 2006 Titianus and it comes from the DOC Friuli Graves. (the name ‘Graves’, pronounced “Grawv”, is given to this DOC because of the gravelly soil found there, just like in the Graves region of Bordeaux) The producer of this wine is Principi di Porcìa e Brugnera
AND OH MAMMA MIA THIS WINE WAS KILLER!!!! LOVED IT!!!! Mmmmmmm! Complete balance of black fruits, chocolate, acidity, tannins, full-bodied,and lengthy! Just my style. I am dreaming about this wine as I type! The grape varietal has a crazy name too…Refosco dal Peduncolo Rosso. Big grape name for big wine!!


This wine producer will be at the next International Wine Fair, Vinitaly. Check out the video they have made for Vinitaly (in english) and you will see this bottle above in it.



Hope you enjoyed the post and hope you learned a little something about the FRIULI-ULI-ULI wine region and history ;)

Vinously Speaking & Vinously Yours,
The Ceci Sipper!

2 thoughts on “You should be drinkin’ more Friuli…..uli-uli-eh-eh-eh

  1. I have a bunch of Sant Elena Tato 1998 in our wine shop! Stuff is killer at 12 years old. Try to get your hands on older vintages! Great story, or whatever you call a blog entry, by the way.

  2. Thanks Jacob! Glad you enjoyed the blog entry! I would LOVE to try some older vintages of Sant'Elena. Even in its youth I could see the potential! Where is your wine shop by the way?

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