The passion of the Friuli-Venezia-Giulia wine region of Italy, bottled and brought to you.
Friuli Italian Wines is the fruit of a shared passion for wine, desire to unite Italian and American culture not only in life but in work, love, and friendship of three business savvy young professionals, the dreamers and founders of this business. In early 2014 the three teamed up, determined to make a long-standing dream into a reality. Emily, originally from the Bay Area and from a high-tech and business background, her husband Alex, coming out of Friuli with extensive experience as a business owner in the world famous Italian furniture sector and Patrick, an expert sommelier from Friuli bringing a wealth of experience with one of the most globally famed Italian companies, Fiat, mutually crossed paths and immediately recognized the perfect balance between design, art, business, finance, charisma, dreams and business drive that was present amongst the three of them. Most importantly, the three connected on a shared passion for wine from the Friuli region, and a strong desire to connect people through the passionate story and culture of the region and the beautiful wines it produces.
Together, this American-Italian team presents a dream, an experience, and a little-known region in one of the most beautiful, elegant countries of the world, Italy. Friuli-Venezia-Giulia - a region in which all three founders are deeply rooted and connected, and a region that historically has remained under the radar of the global wine movement, a true hidden treasure.
This unspoiled territory provides life to extremely rooted and proud individuals, grown and brought into the world with care and love, much like its grapes. Italy’s northeastern-most region is the crossroads of Europe’s Latin, Germanic and Slavic cultures. Friuli’s heavy ties to its roots have created a very strong identity reflected in the region’s wines. The wineries are long-standing, old familial wineries, located on a variety of the regions many terrains, ranging from hilltops, to rocky mountains, to flat plains creating a landscape for some glorious grape varietals that the US can only imagine, such as Ribolla Gialla, Friulano, and Refosco.
These wines enjoy a high degree of exclusivity outside Italy because most are consumed domestically and not exported. The small degree of exportation is usually to other close European countries and a very small percentage makes it to New York with large importers but gets lost among the more widely known wines.
This is where Friuli Italian Wines comes in. The mission of the company is to bring the culture of Friuli and its wine to the US. The market is primed and ready – US wine drinkers are consuming more wine than ever, there is an increasing interest in Italian wines, and there is a gap in the market for this region’s products but an ever-growing interest and buzz surrounding them.
We want to introduce you to Friuli, to its passionate people whose love for what they do is reflected in the wine, and to our dream. We want to connect countries and give California wine-drinkers a glimpse into a special place with special wines. We had a friend ask us, ‘If somebody wanted to buy one of these wineries, what would it cost’? We didn’t hesitate on the answer. The answer was ‘These wine owners are so deeply invested in what they do, so proud of the region, the territory, the products, the history, the traditions – they wouldn’t sell for any price’. This is the passion of Friuli, bottled and presented from us to you.
–Emily, Alex & Patrick
