Vie di Romans: An intriguing interweaving of expertise and dialogue with a unique terroir

The name Vie di Romans immediately conjures up the lengthy history of the Gallo family. Its activities, in particular over recent generations, have made the winery stand out for its deep cultural roots in the local growing area and for the profoundly expressive quality of its vineyards.

For some 40 years, Gianfranco and his wife – recently joined by their children – have directed the operation, imprinting upon the wines a style widely recognised for its high quality and distinctive personality.

The 60 hectares of vineyards lie in the far eastern section of the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region, in the Isonzo river valley, where the area’s peculiar geological makeup creates a uniquely favourable climate: a combination of the encounter of the Mediterranean climate of the Adriatic Sea, just a few kilometres to the south, with the sub-Alpine climate of the Alps to the north.

The soils include glacial-era deposits of Dolomite rock and Carso limestone left behind on the valley floor, gradually building up over time. Each era has generated its own distinctive soils, ranging in depth, limestone content, and sand-clay proportions.

In this distinctive soil-climate matrix, each individual vineyard constitutes an inimitable natural asset. The grapes from each vineyard are vinified separately in order to preserve the purest expression of each terroir, and the resultant wines – such as Piere, Vieris, Ciampagnis, Vie di Romans, and Dessimis – bear on the label the name of their respective vineyards.

Two of the Vie di Romans wines are blends. One, Flors di Uis (‘Flower of the Grape’), is a tribute to the Friuli tradition of blending together three different varieties – Malvasia Istriana, Riesling, and Tocai Friulano – to showcase their elegant and unmatched complementarity. Each variety is picked separately, since they ripen at different times, then fermented and matured sur lie; only after nine months are they finally married together and bottled. Ten more months of bottle-ageing follow before release. First produced in the 1990 vintage, its unique florality and delicately spicy character suggested the descriptive name of Flors di Uis. Flors di Uis 2018 was named as one of Decanter’s top wines of 2020.