Friuli has always been a place shaped by foreign influence. Tucked into Italy’s northeast corner — closer to Slovenia and Austria than to Rome — it’s a region where Latin, Slavic, and Germanic cultures collide.... Read More

Friuli has always been a place shaped by foreign influence. Tucked into Italy’s northeast corner — closer to Slovenia and Austria than to Rome — it’s a region where Latin, Slavic, and Germanic cultures collide. And the wines have long reflected that: structured whites, savory skin-contact styles, and an openness to ideas from beyond its borders.

This was most apparent when Josko Gravner made his revolutionary moves in the 1990s. He traveled east for influence, turning to ancient Georgian quevri to reimagine what Friulian white wine could be.

Now, Giampaolo Venica — of the Venica & Venica family — offers his own vision, by looking in the opposite direction: west, to the Northern Rhône. After several harvests working alongside Jean-Louis Chave in Saint-Joseph and Hermitage, Giampaolo returned home with a new sense of what was possible for Friulano and Ribolla Gialla, the region’s most widely-planted indigenous white grapes.

His new project, Dalia Maris, is inspired by, but is certainly not a copy of, the Rhône. The vineyards are 60 to 80 years old, set in the hills of Buttrio (known for its rich, textural whites) and Rosazzo (considered a “Grand Cru” village by the locals), where Friuli’s unique soils, known as ponca, are dominant. The farming is biodynamic, the yields are minuscule, and the winemaking is slow, careful, and free of additives. There’s no sulfur in the wine-making, and the wines age in 227-liter barrels sourced through Chave himself, made by the same cooperage used for Hermitage Blanc.