Adopted in 1995, Friuli Annia is the latest of the appellations in the northeastern region of Friuli Venezia Giulia.

The territories where this wine is produced are crossed by Via Annia, an ancient Roman highway built by Titus Annius Rufus in 131 BC that connected the early Christian town of Aquileia to Julia Concordia, whence it joined Via Aemilia.

The area’s winegrowing vocation - officially celebrated with the new appellation – was known also to the ancients. Archeologists have found a great number of wine amphorae in their excavations here.

Later, in the Golden Age of the Patriarchy in the Middle Ages, the area was still covered with vineyards as testified in a deed with which Patriarch Popon (1031 AD) donates some of the area’s villages to the Chapter of Aquileia, describing them as “covered with fields, vineyards, prairies, pastures, and cultivated and uncultivated land.”

At a yet later date, in 1811, several vineyards were recorded in the Napoleonic Cadaster.

The limited production of wine here rarely goes beyond 12,000 hectoliters (around 317,000 gallons) a year, including both whites and reds. The reds are full bodied and pleasantly vinous, while the whites, led by the Tocai of Friuli, which is certainly the area’s most traditional and best-known grape variety, carry all of the superb aromas of this land.