The history of Collavini begins in Rivignano (Friuli Venezia Giulia), in 1896 with Eugenio, the founder, who was the wine supplier of the noble families of Udine and of the shops.
The winery management passes from Eugenio to his son Giovanni, who has to drive the company through two wars but, at the end of which, thanks to the rapid acceleration of the commerce, succeeds in establishing the success of the winery thanks to the quality of its wines.
At the beginning of the 60s, Giovanni left the management of the company to his son Manlio who exploited a very important period for oenology; new methods of winemaking studied during this period, allow the winemakers to obtain wines of a quality unknown until then; it is Manlio himself who takes those first signs of strong change and becomes one of the very first producers to bring Friulian wines to the world. In 1966 he moved the winery from Rivignano to Corno di Rosazzo, where he bought the Zucco-Cuccanea castle (1560).
Manlio is one of the very first wine makers to believe in making white wine with Pinot Grigio (it was 1969) and in 1971 he created “ll Grigio”, a sparkling wine that set trends and is still highly appreciated.
Today the Collavini winery is a family-run business that sees, alongside Manlio, the fourth generation of Collavini’s or its sons Giovanni, Luigi and Eugenio.

Collavini’s Ribolla Gialla

It was Manlio’s idea to create the sparkling Ribolla Gialla; at the end of the 70s, Manlio decided to dedicate 4.5 hectares of land to the Ribolla Gialla (native variety). Thus was born the Ribolla Gialla brut obtained thanks to the Collavini sparkling wine method; Eugenio has in fact thought of combining the Martinotti-Charmat (autoclave) method with the techniques of the Classic Method. The outcome is a fresh, delicate and well-structured wine that earned Eugenio the nickname of “Prince of Ribolla”