Mysterious Origins of the Italian Wine Formerly Known as Tocai

By Mike Madaio

A monograph that digs into the history of Tocai Friulano, a popular Italian grape mostly grown in Friuli Venezia Giulia. Author Mike Madaio searches through northeast Italy, Hungary and France to try to determine the true origins of this important wine.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Life at Table
• Release date: May 20, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224340750

Book preview

Mike Madaio

Mysterious Origins of the Italian Wine Formerly Known as Tocai

First published by Life at Table 2023

Copyright © 2023 by Mike Madaio

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.

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Mysterious Origins of the Italian Wine Formerly Known as Tocai

Vineyards in Collio, FVG (Aurellio Candido/Flickr)

The Friuli-Venezia-Giulia (FVG) grape Tocai Friulano is probably, inauspiciously, most known for its part in the multi-decade legal battle by Hungary to prevent the word Tocai from being used in Italy, because of its similarity to their own famous Tokaji wine. From 2008, when the Council for the European Union finally ruled in the Hungarians’ favor, Italian wine labels could no longer use the controversial term, and are now labeled just Friulano. Strangely, the grape is still officially called Tocai Friulano, at least according to Italy’s National