July is the journalist from Fine Wine and Liquor magazine in China. In 2016 she visited Collio in Italy and wrote a Chinese report about it: 《不可错过意大利Collio的N个理由》 This English article is the translated version of this report.
In 2017 her report got the "Best Italian journalistic article informative" award in the XII edition of the Collio Prize organized by the Consorzio Tutela Vini Collio [Consortium For The Protection of Wines from Collio], in collaboration with the University of Udine, MIB School of Management and ARGA Friuli Venezia Giulia.
Neighboring Slovenia, Collio is a 1,500-hectare wine DOC in Friuli-Venezia Giulia region, northeast of Italy. Located between the Alps and the Adriatic Sea, it is mostly showery. Collio is famous for its white wine. Besides, it has many other attractions that you absolutely cannot miss.
Besides White Wines
Collio is known as a "white wine fairyland" because it teems with a great variety of grapes, including local varieties and international ones. In addition, it also produces red wine although the red wine here is not so famous.
The typical grape varieties here include Chardonnay and Malvasia. If you love them and prefer to explore the changing taste of wine, why not pay a visit to Collio, one of the most famous white wine regions in Italy?
Let Go of the Stomach to Enjoy Seafood
Being close to the sea, Collio abounds in seafood. As the water is very clean, many local restaurants offer fresh seafood. Take Fasolari, a kind of mussel, for example. You’d better eat it raw. Ask the cook to help you open the shells. You can directly eat the meat, which is a little bit salty because of the sea water, together with the local white wine. Even if the white wine comes from an unknown vineyard, it will also greatly boost the taste. This really gives a perfect explanation of the saying – “local wine and local dishes are a match made in heaven.” The seafood here is not only fresh. Actually, its price is far below that in Venice, a hot tourist city in Italy no more than one or two hours’ drive away.
Delicious and Big Portion Food
The portion size in Collio restaurant is impressive. In this part of the world, if you eat according to local traditional customs, you’ll find it very difficult to finish everything on the plate. During my last visit to Collio, I went to Subida, a 1-star Michelin restaurant. After the appetizers and the first course were two huge pasta dishes. Although I’m usually a big eater never wasting food, I just tasted the dessert and couldn’t finish it after eating up the pasta dishes and subsequent meat dishes. Actually, besides the Michelin restaurant, most of other local restaurants here also prefer to offer huge main dishes.
Scenic B&B accommodation
Driving along the zigzagging mountain road in Collio, you can see numerous vineyards scattered on the verdant hillsides. Tourists come to visit in endless streams every summer. Beaches will be covered with sun umbrellas then. Besides the 5-star hotels, Collio has more family inns offering B&B accommodation. During my week-long stay there, the hotels I stayed mostly sat on the hillside, with fresh air and quiet nights. Opening the window in the morning, I could see the mist slowing rising from the foot of the hill while overlooking the picturesque scenery in the distance. Breakfast was sometimes arranged in the vineyard and sometimes on the terrace of the dinner hall, which also faces the vineyard. Having breakfast in such a beautiful morning scene will surely give you a good appetite.
To fully enjoy the white wine, cheap and fine seafood and breathtaking natural scene, how can you miss Collio?