FEDERICA BOFFA PIO: SHAPING THE FIFTH GENERATION OF PIO CESARE

Federica Boffa Pio hosts dinner at her family home in Treiso, Piedmont, Italy | Photo Credit: Joyce Lin

Through three meetings, a birth-year Barolo and the wines shaping Pio Cesare's next chapter, Joyce Lin follows Federica Boffa Pio as she honours the family legacy while bringing her own voice to its future

Federica Boffa Pio shares Pio Cesare Barolo1997, the birth of her vintage at the private dinner in her family home in Treiso, Piedmonte, Italy. | Photo Credit: Joyce Lin

1997 Barolo at the Family Table

At her family's home in Treiso, within the Barbaresco DOCG and beside the family's Il Bricco vineyard, Federica Boffa Pio shared a 1997 Pio Cesare Barolo, the vintage of her birth. Its fruit had moved towards dried rose, leather and forest floor, yet the wine remained vividly alive: a record of weather, soil and decisions made in a year no one at the table could revisit. No one could return to 1997, yet the bottle brought the year vividly into the room. For a moment, time was no longer an idea. It was something we could taste.

Across from her sat her mother, Nicoletta, who had welcomed us into the family home and cooked dinner. The meal spoke in the intimate language of home: fried zucchini flowers, anchovies with butter, agnolotti del plin, Nicoletta's veal-and-pork stew, and baked peaches with almonds. I felt extraordinarily fortunate to experience Italian home cooking for the first time through the Pio family's generosity.

Wine estates often describe succession as the passing of a torch. At Pio Cesare, the reality has been more intimate, complex and demanding. When I first met Federica, I saw a young woman carrying a future that had arrived far too soon. Four years later, in her own cellar and vineyards, I met her again—and the transformation was impossible to miss.

Tradition, Spoken in a New Voice

The fifth generation of Pio Cesare — Federica and Cesare, with the valuable support of their cousin Augusto — manage the Family’s winery. | Photo Credit: Pio Cesare

Pio Cesare's fifth generation is building upon the wines and values that define the house. Federica, her cousin Cesare Benvenuto Pio, and a long-serving team continue to champion the full portfolio: Classics, single-vineyard bottlings, Signature Whites, Discoveries, and the family’s historic Revival wines. Yet new priorities are coming into view: a major investment in white wine, closer attention to climate adaptation, and a more direct conversation with visitors and younger drinkers. Federica’s voice is emerging through a deep understanding of the family legacy and a clear vision for carrying it forward.

When the Future Arrives Early

I first met Federica in New York in June 2022. It was her first visit to the United States after the pandemic and her first without her father, whom the family had lost to Covid-19 in 2021 at the age of 66. Pio Boffa had long been a prominent ambassador for both his family's estate and Piedmont. His absence was felt at every level: as a father, a proprietor, and the person expected to guide the transition.

Federica already knew the business from within. She began working alongside her father in 2017 and joined the company full time after graduating in 2019. Yet the transition arrived far sooner than anyone had expected. In New York, she presented recent vintages shaped by her family’s knowledge and the estate’s long-serving team. I saw a living tradition: Federica honoring its values while bringing her own perspective.

Two years later, at a Pio Cesare lunch at Hutong in New York, I felt a new energy. Federica spoke with ease and authority, fully at home in the role she had grown into. Then Barolo, Barbaresco and Barbera were paired with Chinese dishes. A bold, refreshing combination that stands out from typical Italian or Western cuisine served at wine-industry lunches. It was thrilling to see someone step beyond convention, explore new ways to experience food and wine, and open the conversation to a whole new audience. The pairing revealed unexpected dimensions in the wines and showed just how exciting and inclusive the world of wine can be.

Then, Barolo, Barbaresco, and Barbera were served alongside Chinese dishes, a combination I rarely encountered in over eleven years of winemaker lunches and dinners. The wines seemed to awaken in a different register. As someone who has long advocated for wine with Asian cuisine, I recognized the significance: a historic house could enter a different cultural conversation while preserving the wines' depth and identity. It also carried a wider invitation to look beyond convention and discover what a wine may reveal in an unexpected setting.

Federica Boffa Pio presents current release of Barolo 2020, Barolo Mosconi and Barbaresco Il Bricco, along side with back vintage of Il Bricco Barbaresco from 2015 to 2004 at Hutong in NYC. Photo Credit: Joyce Lin

Federica Boffa Pio shows us the underground historic cellar in Alba, Piemonte, Italy | Photo Credit: Joyce Lin

Four years later, I finally arrived in Piemonte for the first time. After years of presenting Pio Cesare's wines to my audiences, walking into its historic cellar in Alba and seeing Federica again on her home ground felt both thrilling and strangely familiar. She guided us through the new facility dedicated to white wine, the vineyards, and a series of technical tastings with an ease that belonged to the place.

At our final dinner in Treiso, the conversation became more personal. I asked how she and her mother were doing. Federica paused, then shared that when she faces a major decision, she thinks about how her father might have viewed it, how he would have approached it and what he might have done. Then she added something that stayed with me: she also thinks about what she would say to him.

What touched me most was realizing that their conversation had not ended; it had simply taken a new form. Her father's voice remained a compass, while her own experience had given that conversation a new dimension. Federica speaks from within the family legacy with a voice unmistakably her own.

A New Voice in a Historic House

At Pio Cesare, tradition has never meant standing still. Founded in 1881 by Cesare Pio, the estate still makes wine in the center of Alba. Its historic cellar descends beneath the city, winding through rooms built around the ancient Roman walls of Alba Pompeia. Casks, barriques and bottles rest within these layers of time. Here, history is not held at a distance; it remains part of the winery’s everyday life.

Courtyard of Pio Cesare Winery | Photo Credit: Pio Cesare

Pio Boffa, the fourth generation of Pio Cesare | Photo Credit: Pio Cesare

Each generation has shaped Pio Cesare in its own way. Under Pio Boffa’s leadership, the family made two defining commitments with the 1985 vintage: Piodilei, a Langhe Chardonnay created to express the region’s complexity, structure, and longevity, and Barolo Ornato, the family’s first single-vineyard wine. Barbaresco Il Bricco followed with the 1990 vintage, and Barolo Mosconi with 2015. Each represented a purposeful step forward for the estate. Yet all remained grounded in the depth, balance, and sense of place that define Pio Cesare.

In the early 2000s, Pio Boffa conceived a plan to extend the historic cellar to a site across the road. The expansion would provide much-needed space while keeping the winery in the heart of Alba. Federica and Cesare carried that vision forward.

Pio Cesare's newly expansion across the road from the historical location. | Photo Credit: Joyce Lin

Underground tunnels beneath Corso Nino Bixio and a private elevated walkway spanning the road now link the new facilities to the historic complex. These connections allow both sides to function as one winery while minimizing disruption to street traffic. The additional space houses a dedicated white-wine cellar, along with areas for bottling, packaging and bottle aging.

The new cellar of Pio Cesare is dedicated to making white wines: Chardonnay and Timorasso. | Photo Credit: Joyce Lin

For Federica and Cesare, completing the expansion is both an act of continuity and a foundation for what comes next.

The dedicated white-wine cellar gives Piodilei and Derthona their own space in a house long known for its reds. Alongside them is a team that worked with Pio Boffa for decades. The fifth generation now brings fresh energy and vision to the future.

A New Chapter in White

What a privilage to taste wine in the newly constructed cellar located just across the road from Pio Cesare’s historical cellar. | Photo Credit: Joyce Lin

Walking through the underground tunnel from the historic cellar into the new space felt like moving through the estate’s history towards its next chapter.

The room opened before us, bright, spacious and newly completed. We were told that ours was the first press group invited to taste there. Soon, it would become the dedicated home of the family’s white-wine production.

We began with Timorasso, a project that grew from Pio Boffa’s desire to make a Piedmontese white with the depth and capacity to develop in bottle. Having already worked with Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc, the family found in Timorasso a native variety capable of carrying that ambition forward.

The estate acquired a south-facing site in Vho, near Tortona, in 2018 and planted the vines in 2021. Before those vines came into production, the team made a series of small trial vintages from purchased fruit beginning in 2019, choosing to keep the wines in the cellar rather than release them.

Tasting Pio Cesare Timorasso multivintages from 2019 to 2024 | Photo Credit: Joyce Lin

We tasted six vintages, from 2019 to 2024. Each marked another stage in the team’s understanding of Timorasso: how much texture to draw from the skins, how best to preserve freshness, and how long the wine needed in the bottle before its character came into focus.

The first official Pio Cesare Derthona Colli Tortonesi Timorasso Riserva is the 2023, made from the family's own Vho vineyard. The south-facing site lies at about 250 meters on calcareous clay and marl.

A small portion of the fruit receives brief skin contact. The wine then spends a year in stainless steel and almost two years in bottle. In the glass, celery leaf and coriander seed rose above firm acidity and a savory, mineral core.

Firm acidity and savory breadth give Timorasso a strong framework for aging. As the wine develops nuance and complexity in bottle, it is easy to understand how the nickname ‘white Barolo’ took hold.

The family did not release every vintage. Instead, six harvests became six years of learning about the site, skin contact and bottle ageing. The 2023 vintage was the first released to the public, shaped by the trials that began in 2019.

Tasting a vertical of 2024, 2021 and 2016 Piodilei Chardonnay. | Photo Credit: Joyce Lin

Piodilei anchors the family's long white-wine story. Pio Boffa officially presented its first vintage in 1985, at a time when Chardonnay was still unusual in Piedmont. He believed the region's hills could produce a white wine with structure, complexity, and aging potential. Its name means 'Pio for her', a dedication to the women of the family.

Since the 2019 vintage, Piodilei has blended Chardonnay from Bricco di Treiso in Barbaresco and Mosconi in Monforte d’Alba. Bricco di Treiso adds freshness and finesse, while Mosconi brings ripe fruit and spice. The parcels are vinified separately before blending. Fermentation begins in stainless steel and finishes in French oak barriques. The wine then matures on its lees in barrel before further ageing in bottle.

A vertical of 2024, 2021 and 2016 showed how beautifully the Chardonnay can evolve. The 2024 carried stone fruit and fresh pineapple, with the oak still visible at the edges. The 2021 had begun to draw those elements together. The 2016 showed what bottle age can bring: the fruits, oak, and creamy lees character have been integrated into a poised, savory whole, layered with dried fruit and nuanced tertiary notes. Its striking energy carried the wine through its greater depth and complexity, while freshness remained at its core.

Today, Federica and Cesare carry the vision onward. In the new cellar, Piodilei and Derthona continue unfold their promise, as the fifth generation gives the family’s legacy a fresh and luminous chapter.

Continuity in Red

Pio Cesare’s classic Barolo brings together Nebbiolo from nine vineyards across Serralunga d’Alba, Monforte d’Alba, Novello, La Morra and Grinzane Cavour. After a long maceration on the skins in stainless steel, the wine ages for nearly 24 months, mainly in large French and Eastern European oak casks, with a small proportion in French barriques. The classic Barbaresco draws on four vineyards in Barbaresco region: three in the village of Treiso, and one in Alba. As Federica explained, these ‘Classics’ allow different vineyard expressions to be tasted together. Blending vineyards across the region, rather than focusing on a single site, brings together diverse soils, exposures and communes to create wines with breadth and balance.

Pio Cesare’s vineyard map | Photo Credit: Pio Cesare

The 2022 Barolo Pio was immediately expressive: red and dark cherries lifted by fresh acidity, with tannins unfolding in a broad, graceful sweep. The 2021 Ornato, from warm, south-facing limestone-and-clay plots in Serralunga, drew the gaze closer. More concentrated and reserved, it revealed rose petals and blood orange, framed by firm, ripe tannins. One gathered the breadth of the region; the other brought us close to the character of a single hillside.

Comparison tasting of classic Pio Cesare Barolo and Barbaresco verses single vineyard expression of Barolo and Barbaresco | Photo Credit: Joyce Lin

Mosconi offered a third perspective. In 2014, the family acquired the vineyards in the historic Mosconi MGA in Monforte d’Alba. These vineyards included parcels of very old Nebbiolo vines. The first Barolo Mosconi followed with the 2015 vintage. Across 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019 and 2021, Mosconi’s power changed shape with each year. At eleven years old, the 2015 showed graceful evolution, with savory, leather tertiary notes and black tea carried by tannins that had softened with time. The warmer 2017 spoke of earth and spice. Ripe cherry and blood orange brightened the 2019 and lingered through a long finish. Then came 2021: concentrated red and black cherry, tea and flowers, held by firm tannins. For all its density, the wine moved with remarkable grace.

Vertical tasting of Pio Cesare single vineyard Mosconi Barolo in Monforte d’Alba from 2015 to 2021 | Photo Credit: Joyce Lin

Tasted together, these wines define the house style. The classic blends capture the range of Barolo and Barbaresco, while Ornato, Il Bricco and Mosconi bring individual hillsides into focus. Each wine has its own personality, and the single-vineyard bottlings show how profoundly a site shapes Nebbiolo’s structure and flavor. Pio Cesare’s identity comes through in their dialogue: a consistent house signature that lets each vineyard speak with greater force and distinction.

Climate at Vineyard Scale

For Pio Cesare, sustainability includes people as well as land. The estate employs around 15 vineyard workers year-round instead of relying only on seasonal labor. This provides stable work and builds valuable vineyard knowledge. As hotter seasons, water stress, and sudden storms alter the growing cycle, that knowledge helps the estate understand what each parcel needs.

Protective nets are used to against hail, excessive sun, and birds in Pio Cesare's vineyards. | Photo Credit: Joyce Lin

During our vineyard visits, we saw how the estate is adapting to climate change. Weather stations in key vineyards provide precise data for each site, helping the team adjust irrigation, canopy management, and harvest timing. Protective nets help shield the vines from hail and excessive sun.

In 2021, the family planted about one hectare of Nebbiolo at a higher elevation in Alta Langa. The young vines produced their first small harvest in 2023. This long-term experiment will help the family understand how Nebbiolo responds to a cooler site.

Cellar practices are adjusting too. Federica has described using shorter macerations and gentler extraction in warmer vintages. These choices help preserve Nebbiolo’s balance and freshness as warmer seasons bring riper fruit and more powerful tannins.

As conditions evolve, the fifth generation is responding with curiosity and care, preserving the freshness, balance, and vineyard character that have long defined Pio Cesare.

What a Legacy Is For

During our final dinner at La Ciau del Tornavento in Treiso, I told Federica that I had lost my mother in 2015. No two experiences of grief are the same, but sharing that part of my story felt honest and meaningful. I was grateful for the connection and hope that remained with us that evening.

Group photo with Federica Boffa Pio at La Ciau del Tornavento in Treiso, Italy | Photo Credit: Joyce Lin

Across those four years, what I felt most deeply was admiration. By 2026, Federica carried her authority with a warmth and ease that felt entirely her own. Her leadership was visible in the work: completing the cellar her father envisioned, strengthening Pio Cesare’s commitment to white wine, testing Nebbiolo at altitude, and welcoming new drinkers into the Pio Cesare world. Each decision honored the estate’s heritage while carrying it forward in her own voice.

That evening, the 1997 Barolo offered more than the beauty of maturity. It revealed a profound truth about becoming. Time softened its tannins and brought forth layers that only age could uncover, allowing the wine’s identity to shine. People evolve in much the same way. Experience deepens who we are, bringing the perspective, courage, and wisdom to grow into ourselves.

At Pio Cesare, heritage serves as a foundation for thoughtful evolution. The values that have guided the house for generations now inform decisions shaped by today's realities. Through those choices, Federica is carrying the estate forward with its identity intact and opening new possibilities for its future.

Like the 1997 Barolo, Pio Cesare carries its legacy forward, gaining depth, energy, and possibility as Federica shapes the future in her own voice.

At La Ciau del Tornavento, a one-Michelin-star restaurant in Treviso, we tasted an incredible lineup of Pio Cesare’s Barolo, Barbaresco, Timorasso, Piodilei, and Barolo Chinato during our last dinner in Piedmont, Italy. | Photo Credit: Joyce Lin

A MAP IS AN ACT OF BELIEF: HOW LIVIO FELLUGA MADE FRIULI VISIBLE

Eleven years after a glass of Livio Felluga Pinot Grigio changed my understanding of the variety. I arrived in Rosazzo to meet the family that has spent generations revealing the character and distinction of Friuli’s hills to the world

Eleven years ago, I met Friuli in a classroom.

I was studying in the intensive sommelier program in 2014 when Livio Felluga Pinot Grigio was poured into my glass. By then, I knew the variety mostly through the light, neutral examples that had made it familiar around the world. This wine spoke with an entirely different voice. It had texture, ripeness and aromas, but also energy and a savory, mineral persistence. It was the most revelatory Pinot Grigio I had tasted.

Some wines impress us. Rarer wines correct an assumption we did not realize we were carrying.

That bottle changed the way I saw Pinot Grigio and placed Friuli on my mental map long before I walked its hills. In June 2026, as Livio Felluga’s Geographical Map label entered its seventieth year, I traveled to Rosazzo to understand the vision behind it.

Filippo and Vittoria Felluga welcomed us with a warmth that reached far beyond hospitality. Through the vineyards, the ancient cellars and the stories they shared, they opened a window onto the memories and relationships that have bound their family to these hills across generations.

Filippo and Vittoria Felluga share the history of Livio Felluga at Vitello d'Oro | Photo Credit: Joyce Lin

Filippo, Livio’s son, works closely with the vineyards; Vittoria, Livio’s granddaughter and the estate’s export director, represents the third generation now carrying its story outward. Together, they show how Livio’s vision remains alive across generations, rooted in the family’s history, renewed through their work and carried outward to new audiences.

The story of Livio Felluga is inseparable from the courage and foresight of its founder: his return from the Second World War, the restoration of neglected vineyards, the release of his first wines in 1956 and the creation of the geographical map that became the estate’s emblem. Standing in Rosazzo, I saw the enduring reach of that vision in the hills he restored and in the family that continues to care for them.

What began with one man’s conviction has become a multigenerational commitment to keeping Friuli visible to the world.

Before Friuli Was Seen

When Livio Felluga began acquiring vineyards in Rosazzo in the 1950s, hillside farming here was far from an obvious route to success. The aftermath of war had left land abandoned and rural communities depleted. Yet he believed that these eastern hills, shaped by Eocene marl and sandstone, cooled by air descending from the Alps and influenced by the nearby Adriatic, could produce wines of identity and character.

Overlook the vineyards from Rossazzo Abbey | Photo Credit: Joyce Lin

In 1956, he put an old topographical map of Friuli on his label. Today it is instantly recognizable. At the time, it was an audacious statement.

Putting a map on a bottle before the place itself gained international recognition was more than branding. It was a declaration that origin should be highlighted. Livio was not asking consumers to remember his name; he wanted them to recognize Friuli.

Livio Felluga created the Geographic Map of Friuli, highlighting the region | Photo Credit: Joyce Lin

The estate has grown into a mosaic of 242 hectares, including 187 hectares under vine divided among more than 300 parcels. It works with 14 varieties and produces 19 wines. It reflects Friuli’s rich identity: Adriatic warmth and Alpine air, native and international grapes, and both celebrated and nearly forgotten varieties. Livio Felluga’s vision has brought them into focus.

At the Monastery of Roses

That conviction takes root at Abbazia di Rosazzo.

The abbey’s origins unfold in chapters. Tradition tells of a hermit named Alemanno who settled on the hill around the year 800. The Church of Saint Peter was inaugurated in 1070; the monastery was elevated to an abbey in 1090, and Benedictine monks arrived the following year. Across more than a thousand years of changing rulers, religious orders and seasons, each generation found a way to renew this place. Vines and olive trees continued to grow on the hillside, carrying its life forward.

Rossazzo Abbey and surrounding vineyard | Photo Credit: Livio Felluga

The continuity was carried forward by those willing to share their knowledge, work, and passion for a place whose story stretches beyond a single lifetime.

Filippo told us how Livio’s relationship with the abbey grew through friendship and trust. The historic vineyards needed experienced hands, and Livio had already devoted himself to restoring the rolling hills nearby. From the shared purpose, a spirit of stewardship took root and has been passed down through generations, weaving a story of care and tradition. 

Livio Felluga’s tasting room and store front at Rossazzo Abbey | Photo Credit: Joyce Lin

Today, the Felluga family manages the abbey’s historic vineyards and olive groves, along with parts of the complex, including the western tower and ancient cellars. The estate has also restored selected spaces, opening for hospitality and tasting in May 2025. Each renewal allows the abbey to welcome people once again, connecting its ancient foundations to the life unfolding around it today.

The family’s role here is sacred guardianship, carrying a story begun centuries before their time with reverence to ensure its survival for future generations. Their responsibility is woven into the daily rhythm of the place: tending vineyards, keeping the ancient cellars breathing, and preserving the delicate dialogue among wine, landscape, and culture in every vintage.

We walked through vineyards rooted in ponca, the local name for the layered marl and sandstone formed on an ancient seabed. It crumbled gently between my fingers, a fragment of deep geological time. On these slopes, the soil demands patience and precision from the vines and the people who tend them. The estate harvests by hand, parcel by parcel, while some old-vine selections receive hundreds of hours of work per hectare.

Wind moved steadily through the rows. Below us, olive groves stretched along the hills toward the horizon. Within the abbey walls lies what Livio Felluga identifies as Friuli’s oldest aging cellar, dating back to the late 12th century.

Here, history breathes through the landscape. It is pruned in winter, awakened in spring, harvested in autumn, and returned to the table in every glass.

Two Flagships, Two Expressions of Memory

Livio Felluga includes two wines in its Iconici collection: Terre Alte and Abbazia di Rosazzo. Both come from the historic vineyards of Rosazzo and are structured white blends designed to evolve over time. Each expresses a different facet of the estate’s identity.

Livio Felluga Abbazia di Rosazzo and Terre Alte Vertical Tasting | Photo Credit: Joyce Lin

Terre Alte, first produced in 1981, brings together Friulano, Pinot Bianco and Sauvignon. It emerged as a confident vision of what a great Friulian white wine could become. The natural concentration of hillside fruit, thoughtful use of oak, time on the lees, and the freshness of Rosazzo give the wine the structure and vitality to gain depth, harmony, and eloquence with age.

Abbazia di Rosazzo, first produced in 2009, unites five grapes: Friulano, Sauvignon, Pinot Bianco, Malvasia Istriana and Ribolla Gialla, from the abbey’s historic vineyards. While Terre Alte expresses the ambition and aging potential of Friulian white wine, Abbazia di Rosazzo carries the inheritance of this particular place: centuries of monastic agriculture, the layered culture of a borderland and a tradition in which different varieties find harmony through the art of blending.

Oenologist Daniele Vuerich at Livio Felluga | Photo Credit: Joyce Lin

At Livio Felluga, oenologist Daniele Vuerich guided us through a rare double vertical tasting, showcasing the remarkable evolution of their wines. We sampled Abbazia di Rosazzo 2022, 2018, and 2016 alongside Terre Alte 2022, 2017, and 2014. Tasting three vintages of each flagship side by side was an extraordinary privilege, allowing us to observe how each wine developed over time. Each glass revealed different stages in the wine’s evolution, highlighting both the vintage’s subtle influence and the blend’s growing depth, harmony, and complexity. Six wines, two distinct expressions, and a historic landscape spanning the years. This tasting offered a captivating portrait of the aging potential and consistency of Livio Felluga’s white wines. I’m so grateful to Daniele for walking us through this impressive lineup.

Tasting mutiple vintages of Livio Felluga Terre Alte: from 2022, 2021, 2017, 2014, and 2011 | Photo Credit: Joyce Lin

Our exploration of Terre Alte continued beyond the vertical. Earlier in the visit, we tasted the 2021 from magnum. On our final day, Filippo and Vittoria opened a 15-year-old bottle of the 2011 from the family cellar, an immensely generous gesture and a rare opportunity to witness Terre Alte at maturity. Together, the two vintages formed another compelling portrait of the wine across time. The 2021 carried ripe stone fruit, savory depth and an energy shaped by warm days and cool nights. The 2011 had deepened to gold, unfolding with dried apricot, toasted hazelnut, clove and gentle nuttiness. A fine thread of freshness still ran through its mature flavors, holding them together with remarkable grace and affirming the longevity of Friulian white wine.

Terre Alte is the family’s conversation with time. Abbazia di Rosazzo carries the memory of the Rosazzo hill. Its monastic heritage, historic vineyards, and centuries-old tradition of blending Friuli’s grapes into a single wine.

The meaning of Abbazia di Rosazzo also comes from the enduring relationship of care behind it. Each variety contributes a distinct voice, and time allows those voices to grow closer. Together, they form a portrait of Rosazzo, rooted in history, shaped by the present, and entrusted to the future.

Pinot Grigio, Seen Anew

Livio Felluga Pinot Grigio 2024 and 2017 | Photo Credit: Joyce Lin

For consumers discovering Livio Felluga, I would begin where my own journey began eleven years ago: with the classic Pinot Grigio. That first glass revealed a variety with texture, depth, and a distinct sense of place. Returning to it at the estate brought the experience full circle.

During our visit, we tasted the 2024 and 2017 on successive days. The 2024 spoke with the brightness of youth: apricot and yellow peach were lifted by flowers, fresh herbs and ginger, while a savory finish gave the wine definition. It was generous yet precise, with a subtle pink copper hue recalling the natural color of Pinot Grigio’s skins.

The 2017 offered a different expression. Born from a warm, dry growing season marked by spring frost, it had evolved into a more layered wine with a flinty, mineral character, rounded texture and deeper fruit. At nine years of age, it still carried freshness and clarity, while time had drawn its flavors into a more harmonious whole.

Tasted in close succession, the two vintages revealed Pinot Grigio as a wine with both immediacy and continuity. The 2024 captured the energy and aromatic detail of a young vintage; the 2017 showed how those qualities could deepen and become more integrated with age. Together, they brought me back to what made my first encounter with Livio Felluga so memorable: a familiar grape that offered far more depth than its name alone might suggest.

The wider tasting unfolded like a journey through the estate’s many voices. Sharis 2024, Ribolla Gialla 2024, Sauvignon 2024 and Friulano 2024 introduced the freshness and varietal clarity of the classic range. Sauvignon Potentilla 2021 moved into a more site-specific expression, layering guava, passion fruit and grapefruit with herbs and vibrant freshness. Illivio 2023 and the red blend Sossó 2019 broadened the portrait through structure, blending and time.

Livio Felluga Picolit and Picolit del Sole | Photo Credit: Joyce Lin

Picolit del Sole 2019 and Picolit 2017 brought the journey to a luminous close. Sweetness of dried apricot, tangerine marmalade and honey flowed into ginger, saffron and clove, held together by the lifted acidity that gives Picolit its grace. Their concentration felt less like weight than like radiance, thanks to their natural production of only a few precious berries per bunch.

Together, these wines showcase Livio Felluga’s identity—spacious enough to include native and international grapes, featuring both youthful freshness and mature complexity, single-variety wines and blends, as well as dry and sweet options. Pinot Grigio remains the most natural first step: familiar enough to welcome the drinker, yet expressive enough to open the door to the wider landscape of Friuli.

A Legacy Carried Forward

Today, generations unite to carry Livio Felluga’s legacy. Andrea leads the estate with a steady sense of purpose; Filippo works closely with the vineyards; and Vittoria, representing the third generation, shares the family’s wines and vision with new audiences around the world.

Livio’s belief in Friuli has become a collective legacy, constantly refreshed by each generation’s knowledge, enthusiasm, and commitment. Throughout the vineyards, cellar, and on every bottle with the map, his original vision remains: to highlight the essence of Rosazzo and the Friuli Colli Orientali hills, sharing their beauty with the world.

This is how a legacy endures. Memory roots it firmly, while curiosity steers it forward. Each vintage adds a new chapter to an ongoing story, influenced by the season, the land, and those responsible for its stewardship.

Rossazzo Abbey and surrounding vineyard | Photo Credit: Livio Felluga

Eleven years ago, a glass of Livio Felluga Pinot Grigio opened my eyes to the expressive depth of a familiar grape. In Rosazzo, that initial revelation became complete, showing how one wine can embody ancient soils, generations of expertise, and a deep-rooted connection to its origins.

The map on the bottle gained a new significance. It invites us to explore Friuli more deeply, tracing its rolling hills, listening to the stories told through its vineyards, and appreciating the passion in every glass.

My deepest thanks to Filippo, Vittoria, Daniele Vuerich, and the entire Livio Felluga team for welcoming us with such warmth and generosity. Thank you for sharing your family’s history, guiding us through remarkable wines from vintage to vintage, and allowing us to experience the dedication that sustains this estate. Your work continues to give Friuli a clear, confident voice, rooted in distinctive grapes, living traditions, and a profound connection to the land.

A map can guide us to a destination, while a glass of wine can awaken our senses. The land's story lives on through the dedicated people who tend it, passing down their history and traditions from vintage to vintage, generation to generation.