Colli Orientali, del Friuli, literally the eastern hills of the friuli region in north-east Italy, comprise about 2,000 ha/4,942 acres of vineyard.
The territory of the DOC begins, as its name implies, to the east of the city of Udine near the slovenian border and continues to the border of the province of Udine. The dividing line between the Colli Orientali and Collio is neither geological nor climatic, but simply historical: Udine and its province became part of Italy in 1866 while the neighbouring area of Collio, in the province of Gorizia, was not reunified with the rest of Italy until the end of the First World War. The contiguous zones in fact have the same sort of soil: the so-called ‘flysch of Cormons’, with alternating strata of calcareous marls and sandstone.
