H i s t o r i c a l b a c k g r o u n d Friuli, the northeastern end of Italy, is not much known outside Italy as a wine region of absolute excellence, nevertheless its wine tradition spans over two millennia, going back to pre-historical times. History of Forum Iulii - the Latin name of Friuli - begins with the founding of the colony of Aquileia by rhe Romans in 181 BC, which rapidly becomes the economic centre of Venetia et Histria, the X Region, and one of the most important cities of the Empire as well as its second port, with a flourishing intellectual life and a refined artistic production that earns it the nickname of second Rome. Likewise, its wines gain wide fame and are celebrated by Pliny the Elder, the great Roman historian and encyclopedist of the 1st century A.D., in his Naturalis Historia. In the 4th century A.D. the region is devastated by barbarian invaders, and Aquileya destroyed by Attila's Huns in 452; several invasions ravage Friuli during the next five centuries and only come to an end with the defeat of the Hungars in 955. Civil and economic recovery takes place under the secular and religious authority of the Patriarchs of Aquileia, and the monastic order of the Benedictines established in the Abbey of Rosazzo greatly favours the cultivation of the vine, to the point that an edict of the Patriarch Bertrando in 1341 threatens with excommunication some peasants that would not plant vines on land received from the Abbey. Thus the wines of Friuli are restored to their ancient splendour - in 1592 the Senate of Venice decrees to present Emperor Charles V with “two barrels of wine of Rosazzo” - and are still very much prized at Vienna's court when the Austrian empire falls in 1918. Sadly enough, decadence and oblivion ensue and last almost to this day. I C l i v i Setting up I Clivi in the early 90s, I sought to recapture the authentic character of the wine of this ancient land, which had been somehow lost over the past hundred years. I was lucky enough to be able to acquire two ancient vineyards - twelve hectares of very old vines on steep, terraced hills in two of Friuli's best sites: eight in Corno di Rosazzo, in the Colli Orientali del Friuli DOC district, and four in Brazzano di Cormons, in the Collio district. The vines were in a pathetic conditions, but most could fortunately be saved. My idea was to let history speak through the wine, by making as “transparent” a wine as possible, in which soil, climate and tradition may come fully through and be perceived without interferences. A wine truly grown, whose character is shaped entirely in the vineyard by soil, climate and vines and is in no way altered in the cellar, a wine that stands solely on itself, on its own intrinsic qualities, and is not made to suffer any intervention or “improvement”. In short, purest terroir expression, “without addition or diminishing”.The recipe is organic cultivation in the vineyard, with naturally low yields which seldom reach 20 hectolitres per hectare, and spontaneous, non-interventionist winemaking to ensure absolute integrity. The first wine was produced in 1996. Current production is around 1,500 cases of white wine DOC Colli Orientali del Friuli and DOC Collio from the local Tocai, Verduzzo and Malvasia varieties, and a 500 cases of red wine DOC Colli Oriental del Friuli from a particularly well acclimatized clone of Merlot, introduced here 150 years ago. Ferdinando Zanusso h o m e