About the Producer
One of the most interesting areas of white-wine production in Italy is in the Collio, a stretch of the hilly border between Friuli and Slovenia. Favorable growing conditions for white grape varieties, a penchant for experimentation, and talented winemakers combine to put this little corner of Italy on the wine map. Two of the top wineries in the Collio are the Marco Felluga and Russiz Superiore, both owned by the Marco Felluga family. The Felluga family's wine-making history began in the late 1800s, when Marco's great-grandfather, Michele, began buying and selling wine in Istria, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Michele's son, Marco, added winemaking and grew grapes on the family farm near Trieste, now in Slovenia. After World War I, Marco's son, Giovanni, opened a cellar in Gradisca d'Isonzo in 1938, but World War II disrupted life for a decade. After the war, Istria became part of Soviet-dominated Yugoslavia. The family lost their farm there, and Collio became their home. Two of Giovanni's seven children, Marco and his brother Livio, ultimately established wineries in the vicinity. After graduating from the renowned enology school in Conegliano, Marco founded the Marco Felluga winery in Gradisca d'Isonzo in 1956. Roberto Felluga, the fifth generation, took over the family wine business in 2000 and continued to elevate the quality of the wines through a more sustainable approach to viticulture and winemaking. In 2017, his daughter, Ilaria, began working alongside her father, following her viticulture and enology studies. After his unexpected passing in 2021, Ilaria took over management of the winery. Today, she leads with a focus on sustainability and on producing the highest-quality wines possible, while gaining a reputation for her dynamic personality and deep knowledge of Friuli and her family's legacy in helping establish it as a premier winemaking region. The Marco Felluga estate has vineyards located in four different parts of the Collio—Farra d'Isonzo, San Floriano del Collio, Oslavia, and Cormòns—which allows for strategic grape selection for the numerous wines produced. Three-quarters of the winery's production is white wines, made from both international and local grape varieties.
