Written by Michele Longari IWA
When people think of Italian wine, they tend to head straight for the big names. Tuscany usually appears within seconds. Piedmont is never far behind. Sicily often gets a well-deserved mention too. All of these regions have earned their reputation, of course, but they can also dominate the conversation so thoroughly that other parts of Italy barely get a look in.
That feels a little unfair.
Over the years, both through my work in wine and through my many trips across Italy, I have found myself repeatedly drawn to another side of the country: the north-east. It is a part of Italy that does not always shout the loudest, but it rarely needs to. The wines here are often less about sheer power and more about precision. Less about making an entrance and more about quietly proving a point. They tend to offer freshness, balance and a real sense of place, which I find endlessly appealing.
Two areas in particular stand out for me: Friuli, for its whites, and Alto Adige, for its reds.
Although they are very different in landscape, culture and expression, they share something important. Both produce wines with definition, poise and a certain cool confidence. These are not styles that burst into the room announcing themselves. They are a little more composed than that... and often all the better for it.
As a Sommelier at Hay Wines and an Italian Wine Ambassador for Vinitaly International, I have had the privilege of tasting widely across Italy and meeting producers from many different regions over the years, especially during Vinitaly in Verona. Those conversations, along with my travels through Italy, have only reinforced what I already suspected: some of the country’s most characterful and rewarding wines come from places that still feel slightly under the radar.
Friuli and Alto Adige are two of those places.
Why north-east Italy feels different in the glass
One of the great joys of Italian wine is that it makes absolutely no sense to talk about “Italian wine” as if it were one thing. The country is far too varied for that. Climate, altitude, soils, grape varieties, food traditions, language and winemaking culture can all shift dramatically from one region to the next.
In the north-east, that diversity becomes especially compelling.
Here, geography plays a huge role. You have mountains, foothills and cooler air currents. You have vineyards shaped by altitude and by marked day-to-night temperature swings. In some areas, you also have a fascinating meeting point of Italian, Central European and Slavic influences. All of this helps create wines that often feel lifted, clean-cut and finely tuned.
There is usually a lovely sense of energy in these wines. Acidity is not just there to keep things sharp; it gives shape, direction and movement. Fruit tends to feel precise rather than broad. Oak, where used, is often more restrained. Even richer styles usually keep a line of freshness running through them, which is always welcome and, frankly, rarely a bad thing.
For drinkers who enjoy elegance over heaviness, and detail over excess, this part of Italy can be incredibly rewarding.
If this is a side of Italy you would like to explore at home, we have also put together a mixed case inspired by exactly this idea: From Friuli to the Alps, bringing together crisp whites and refined reds from northern Italy in one box.
Friuli: where Italian white wine becomes quietly profound
If I had to choose one area to show someone that Italian white wine can be every bit as serious, layered and memorable as the country’s reds, Friuli would be high on my list.
Friuli Venezia Giulia, in the far north-east of Italy, has built a formidable reputation among wine lovers for whites of purity, texture and finesse. Yet outside more engaged wine circles, it is still not always the first name that casual drinkers think of. That is a pity, because the region has a great deal to offer.
What I find so compelling about Friuli is the combination of brightness and substance. The best wines can be crisp and refreshing, but they are rarely simple. There is often a subtle textural depth to them, a kind of calm authority. They do not rely on flamboyance. They simply get on with being excellent, which is a quality I have always admired in both wine and people.
This is a region where white wine is treated with real seriousness. Depending on where you are and which producer you are tasting with, you may find wines that feel floral and delicate, others that are stony and taut, and others again that have a broader, more layered texture. What often unites them is a sense of control. Even when aromatic, they rarely feel exaggerated.
That, for me, is one of Friuli’s great strengths. It produces whites that are sophisticated without becoming showy, and expressive without trying too hard.
The grapes that help define Friuli
One of the pleasures of Friuli is its range. There is no single white grape that tells the whole story.
Friulano is one of the region’s signature varieties, and for me one of its most charming. It can offer orchard fruit, gentle nuttiness, soft herbal notes and a slightly savoury finish that makes it wonderfully food-friendly.
Ribolla Gialla often brings a brighter, more citrus-led profile, with freshness and delicacy, though it can also gain more texture depending on the style and the producer.
Sauvignon Blanc here can be especially interesting. Rather than the louder, more tropical style people sometimes associate with the grape elsewhere, Friulian Sauvignon can feel more restrained, more herbal and more poised.
Pinot Grigio also deserves far more respect than it sometimes gets. Friuli is one of the places that reminds us how good Pinot Grigio can be when treated seriously. In the right hands, it is not bland, boring or a last-minute pub decision. It can be elegant, subtly spiced, finely textured and deeply gastronomic.
This is the kind of region that rewards curiosity. The more you taste, the more layers begin to appear.
Why Friuli whites work so well at the table
At Hay Wines, we are always interested in wines that do more than simply taste good on their own. I love wines that come alive at the table, wines that create a proper conversation with food rather than merely sitting next to it looking polite.
Friuli excels here.
These are often wines with enough freshness to lift a dish, but also enough texture to avoid disappearing beside it. That balance makes them incredibly versatile. They work beautifully with seafood, light pasta dishes, grilled vegetables, delicate risottos and many dishes where subtlety matters. They also make a great choice for people who want a white wine with precision rather than softness, or elegance rather than overt richness.
In a market where many consumers still think of Italian whites in rather broad terms, Friuli offers the chance to discover something more nuanced, and often much more interesting.
Alto Adige: refined reds from Italy’s alpine edge
If Friuli is one of my favourite places to look for white wines of finesse, Alto Adige is one of the most exciting places to explore red wines with freshness, perfume and control.
This is a region that feels very different from many people’s mental picture of Italian red wine. If someone expects warmth, weight and obvious richness, Alto Adige can come as a pleasant surprise. The reds here often have brightness, aromatic lift and a beautiful sense of line. They are not trying to overpower anything. They are trying to express something.
That is something I find increasingly attractive, both professionally and personally. There is a growing appreciation for red wines that are refined, drinkable and detailed, not simply powerful for the sake of it. Alto Adige does this brilliantly.
Set against a dramatic mountain landscape, this is one of Italy’s most distinctive wine regions. The alpine influence helps preserve freshness, while the varied exposures and soils allow for a surprising range of styles. There is precision here, but not sterility. The wines still have personality, often plenty of it.
The red styles that make Alto Adige so appealing
Pinot Nero can be superb in Alto Adige. In the best examples, it offers bright red fruit, floral tones, fine tannins and an elegant, composed structure. It is often a style that appeals to drinkers who value subtlety and detail.
Schiava, one of the traditional grapes of the area, can be a joy when approached with the right expectations. It tends to be lighter in body, fragrant, gentle and very easy to enjoy. It is one of those wines that can catch people off guard simply because it does not behave like the stereotype of what Italian red wine is supposed to be.
Lagrein, by contrast, usually brings more depth and darker fruit, but even here the regional freshness helps keep the wine defined. When well made, it combines substance with vitality rather than descending into heaviness.
What I appreciate in Alto Adige reds is that even when the wines differ in grape and mood, there is often a shared sense of polish. They feel shaped rather than forced. They carry themselves well. One might even say they have excellent manners.
A different kind of Italian red
One reason I enjoy introducing Alto Adige reds to customers is that they can gently reset expectations.
People who usually drink Pinot Noir often find a natural route in. So do those who want reds that are more elegant and food-friendly, or those who are simply a little tired of wines that are too jammy, too alcoholic or too heavily worked.
These are reds for people who enjoy fragrance, freshness and finesse. They are often excellent with food, but they also have enough charm and clarity to hold attention on their own. In that sense, they are versatile not only gastronomically, but stylistically too.
For a merchant, that is extremely useful. For a drinker, it is even better.
What links Friuli whites and Alto Adige reds
At first glance, a white-wine region and a red-wine region may seem like an unusual pairing for a single article. But in the glass, the connection makes perfect sense to me.
Both Friuli and Alto Adige produce wines with definition. Both reward attention to detail. Both offer bottles that feel elegant rather than inflated. And both are excellent examples of how compelling Italian wine can be when freshness and precision lead the way.
There is also a broader lesson here. Italian wine is often at its most exciting when we move beyond the loudest names and let regional identity guide us. That does not mean turning away from the classics. It simply means making room for more than one version of excellence.
Friuli and Alto Adige remind us that some of the most satisfying bottles are not always the ones that make the loudest first impression. More often, they are the wines that quietly win you over and then somehow become the ones you keep going back to, which is really a much cleverer trick.
Why these regions matter to me
As someone who was born in Italy and has spent years working in wine, these regions speak to a part of Italian wine culture that I care about deeply. They represent precision without pretension, quality without theatrics and regional identity without cliché.
My work has taken me through many parts of Italy, and every journey adds another layer to the story. Whether travelling through wine regions, tasting with producers, or meeting wineries during Vinitaly in Verona over the years, I am constantly reminded that the richness of Italian wine lies not only in its famous names, but in its extraordinary variety and in the people who dedicate their lives to expressing place through a bottle.
That is one of the privileges of this work. It allows me not only to taste widely, but to connect those wines back to landscapes, families, vineyards and conversations. Those connections stay with me, and they shape the way I select and talk about wine at Hay Wines.
Friuli and Alto Adige are two regions I always return to with real pleasure, because they capture something I value enormously: authenticity expressed with finesse.
Where to start
Our mixed case From Friuli to the Alps is definitely a perfect starting point and, if you are really curious about exploring this side of Italy, my advice is very simple: approach it with an open mind and pay attention to how these wines feel, rather than how loudly they announce themselves.
A white from Friuli may win you over not through obvious exuberance, but through texture, calm and precision. A red from Alto Adige may not behave like the sun-drenched, swaggering Italian red some people expect, but that is rather the charm of it.
These wines offer another lens through which to understand Italy, and for me that is where much of the joy of wine begins.
The more you taste, the more you realise that Italy is not one story. It is hundreds of stories, told in different accents, from different soils, under different skies.
Friuli and Alto Adige tell two of those stories beautifully.
