WINE & SPIRITS

MAKING THE ROUNDS IN ITALIAN WINE COUNTRY

On a recent whirlwind tour along the Italian wine loop, I drank sensuous Sangiovese under the Tuscan sun and ate truffled delicacies (washed down with big Barolos) in the heart of Piedmont. My hosts on this wondrous journey were four of the most storied wine families in Italy, aristocratic dynasties that have passed their cellared barriques (and oenophilic expertise) from generation to generation.

Though Super Tuscans, made from French grape varieties like cabernet sauvignon, have been the wine buzz stars the last few years, it's only in the native varieties—nebbiolo, trebbiano, refosco and sangiovese—that you can truly taste the poetry buried in the Italian soil.

When we consider Italian wine, most of us immediately think red. But the Friuli wine region, near the border with Slovenia, is all about white. White wine producer Livio Felluga, near the regional capital of Udine, is among the area's best known and most celebrated (earning the coveted Tre Bicchieri year after year). Felluga wines, with their signature antique map labels, are ubiquitous in the finest restaurants all across northern Italy.

The still strikingly handsome Livio Felluga, now 92 and retired, has passed the winery torch onto his children. One evening, at a top restaurant in Udine, his son Andrea filled my glass with his Terre Alte blend, made from a mix of tocai friulano and pinot bianco grapes. It was a perfect match with the pristine fresh seafood—the scampi crudo, spider crab and Adriatic sea scallops—laid out before me. Along with its heralded whites, Felluga also produces Sosso, an outstanding red blend combining merlot and refosco.

While the Fellugas have their artful map label, the Ceretto family of Piedmont are as known for their commitment to the arts, both culinary and visual, as for their powerful Barolos and Barbarescos.