It was in 1971 that the history of Azienda Agricola Teresa Raiz began, in Italy’s northeast area, Friuli, magnificent heartland of white wines. With my oenology studies completed in Conegliano Veneto, I decided to give full vent to that passion which had excited me for years, the desire to produce premium wines. I was able, with humble gratitude, to take up the thread of a venerable family tradition, begun by Teresa Raiz, my maternal grandmother. She was the indirect inspiration for my passion, so much that our winery bears her name. The first vineyards were planted in 1972 on parcels in Marsure di Povoletto. I trained the vines to a fairly dense Guyot system. Even in those early years I was convinced that a dense vineyard layout of 5,000 vines per hectare would yield grapes of far better quality than could be obtained from layouts of about 1,700 vines, a traditional density in Friuli at that time.

Today Marsure comprises 13 hectares under vine, all in the Grave del Friuli DOC area, and the vineyard shows the area’s typical pebbly soils. There are two more hectares in Faedis and another five in Montina, both in Colli Orientali del Friuli area. Important advances in winemaking technology have taken place over the years, referring here largely to white wines: in 1985 I adopted a partially reductive fermentation, which then gave way in 2000 and later to a rigorously reductive process. This latter technique brought greater aromatic richness and longer wine life, results truly exciting. 

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