Collio DOC is a tiny appellation snuggled up against the Slovenian border in north-east Italy. It is a beautiful place. How beautiful? After our recent visit to the region, I noticed that Sue changed her computer’s desktop image to a photo of these hills. Collio replaced another beautiful vineyard area, Cartizze, on the screen, which last year replaced a photo of the Douro Valley. The competition for real estate on Sue’s desktop is fierce. Collio is that beautiful.
2024 marks the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Collio Consortium and we were there to catch up with what is new in this dynamic region, best known for its stunning white wines. This was our fourth trip, having previously visited in 2000, 2015, and 2019. We are grateful to our Colliio Consortium hosts and to everyone who answered our questions and let us sample their wines.
Continuity and Change in Collio
Collio is a region of paradox and contradiction, which makes it very interesting indeed. Start with geography. Colllio is defined by its most distinctive common elements, hills and soil. As the map above (which hangs on Sue’s office wall) shows, Collio is crescent-shaped, with winegrowing concentrated in the hills at the two extremes. The soil profile here is called ponca, stratified marl and limestone rich in minerals and fossils, that resulted from the the rising seabeds that created the hills.
This Article was originally published on The Wine Economist
