Over five years ago I had the opportunity to meet Ilaria Felluga and her father, Roberto Felluga ,at their importer tasting with Dalla Terra in the Boston area. They both stood out to me that day. Roberto seemed like a genuine, humble man for someone whose family’s heritage has been producing such respected, quality wines in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region. I loved the enthusiasm and drive that Ilaria had in traveling the world with her father to become involved in the family business. Fast forward 2 years later in late November of 2021 Roberto unexpectedly passed away leaving the keys to his family’s legacy and traditions all in Ilaria’s hands to manage.
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| Ilaria Felluga and her father Roberto Felluga |
For Women’s History Month I was excited to have the opportunity to have a one-on-one video interview with Ilaria to discuss her beginnings in the business and her new role as CEO and owner of both wineries of the Felluga family, Marco Felluga and Russiz Superiore. I admire her bravery at such a young age to not only have to mourn the loss of her father, but to have to run such a large operation that carries the burden to continue to live up to her father’s legacy and produce high quality wines of the Collio wine region.
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| Ilaria Felluga |
Ilaria, when did you first get involved in the winery?
Ilaria joined the winery in 2017 following her viticulture and enology studies. Part of her studies at the university required her to do an internship working at a winery. On the list of the suggested wineries for her to intern at was Marco Felluga, her family’s business. She approached her father Roberto requesting an internship at the winery and he told her that she had to ask their enologist who was happy to have her join them. Not only was she going to be the youngest and only female at the winery, she also the daughter of the boss.
During the internship she worked in the vineyards learning how to gauge the acidity and sugars in the grapes while also taking part in the fermentation process once the grapes were harvested. The technical part is what Ilaria personally loved the most.
Once she officially joined the winery, she was, and still is, more dedicated to the global travel and commercial sales including their Italian and foreign markets. Italy is their primary market representing 65-70% of their sales followed by the United States. Germany, Austria, UK and Australia are some of their other main markets.
Tell me about the history of your family entering the industry.
What is unique about their territory are the abundance of stories of families where parts of Italy became Slovenia after the World War and land was split between the two countries. Ilari’s family originated in Izola, on the Slovenian Adriatic Coast. It was under the Republic of Venice at the time and after the Hapsburg Empire the family decided to open a restaurant. Her great grandfather, Michele, then wanted to sell and produce wine so he purchased land. After World War II their family lost everything and decided to move to Grado, on the Friulian coast.
Growing up do you feel you were destined to be on this path in wine or do you feel it changed at a certain point in your life?
As an only child, her father Roberto never pressured her to do something she didn’t want to do. She was studying scientific materials in high school and when she finished, she didn't know what she wanted to continue to study. She had never lived at the winery because she was living in Liguria with her mom due to her parents' divorce at a young age. She had only visited the winery during the summertime and holidays.
Her father advised her that he took a gap year and went to London and encouraged her to do the same to enhance her English skills. They traveled there together where he left her behind to live with a family. In the mornings she went to school and in the afternoon, she took care of the family’s children. She also was working with their importer in the UK. In her last week Roberto joined her for some wine tasting dinners. There was one evening where she joined him at a Michelin star restaurant where he conducted the tasting and something about that evening that changed her mind, and she decided that she wanted to return to Italy to study viticulture and enology.
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| Russiz Superiore vineyards |
She loves traveling and getting to know different people, listen to their stories and experience various cultures. Sharing ideas and points of views is the most incredible part for her along with the connections you create.
What have been some of your biggest challenges that you have faced since stepping into your role?
Prior to her father’s passing in November 2021, she had been discussing with him in 2020 and 2021 her involvement in the business. He wanted her to start traveling globally alone and taking charge and owning something herself. Making her presence known in the family’s business, to follow in her father’s footsteps, while always being on the road has been a challenge for her.
What has been a huge challenge for her is being a woman, and a younger woman to add, in this industry, especially more so in Italy than abroad. It does not happen on her personal team of 25 at the winery since many of the employees had been working alongside her father and grandfather for many years. Although, when Roberto was alive the enologists were always talking to her father and not to her. She feels she doesn’t get treated with the respect of the role that she is in.
With the talk of the younger generation slowly transitioning away from wine, what are your thoughts on this?
Ilaria stated that something is changing in the market for sure. She has 3 cousins close to her age, with herself turning 30, along with her cousins at the ages of 26, 23 and 19. Her cousin closest to her age drinks like herself enjoying wine for aperitifs and dinner. The one in the middle only drinks for special occasions and the youngest isn’t drinking. It’s different phases and ages. When Ilaria was younger she was drinking shots, etc. but through the years her family was teaching her about the wine.
She believes it’s important to keep wine simple and not at a higher level than what most portray it to be. Ilaria has been hosting different events at the wineries to engage the younger generation and to make wine fun and engaging. Her hospitality team brought the idea to do a wine and DJ night featuring music of the various generations, which has been a hit. It’s more attractive to some than to sit in silence at a wine dinner. They serve wine with cicchetti, small bite sized snacks, and enjoy the lively entertainment in a fun atmosphere.
What do you see as the future for your winery? Do you plan to change much?
Ilaria is always respectful of traditions because she wouldn’t be where she is without them. Roberto strongly believed in 2 things that she remains focused on. One, is the ability to demonstrate that the white wines from Friuli and Collio have ageability. Some of these wines can sometimes be better with age than drinking them fresh. There are white wines that can be drunk 5-20+ years after production. For example, at Italy’s largest wine event, VinItaly, coming up they will be featuring their 1999 Russiz Superiore Col Disore Collio DOC Bianco.
The second important item is the focus on the autochthonous grape varieties of the appellation including the Ribolla Gialla and Friulano grapes. Getting the foreign markets to learn and understand these grapes is key and it’s something unique that they only have in this region and it’s part of their roots.
Lastly, for Ilaria enoturism is something that she continues to focus on where folks can visit and understand what the winery and wine appellation is doing and why they are doing it. They have a local guide take folks through the vineyards to see the plants and animals that populate the area and show soils containing many fossils. They also hold cooking classes where folks cook typical dishes paired with the wines. These pairings along folks that wine can be something more.
The Wines
I sampled a couple of the wineries from both Marco Felluga and Russiz Superiore that I wanted to share. The wines of the Collio wine region once again show it's high quality demonstrated in these wines.
First, is the 2023 Marco Felluga Mongris Pinot Grigio Collio DOC made from 100% Pinot Grigio. This wine is fermented in stainless steel tanks and spends 6 months on the lees before additional time in the bottle.
Very pale straw yellow in color, the Mongris has a bouquet of citrus and green apple. Crisp and medium-bodied on the palate with mouthwatering acdity with notes of citrus pith and nice sapidity on the finish. SRP 13%, SRP $20.
You can find both of these wines and more from Marco Felluga and Russiz Superiore on Wine.com in support of Vino Travels.
