HERE'S A TRIVIA question for the self-acknowledged wine geek: which wine region in the world has the most autochthonous (i.e., native) grape varieties? The answer, which may surprise you, is Friuli Venezia Giulia. To locate it, think of the map of Italy, which resembles a limb in a boot. Well, to put it indelicately, Friuli, in the extreme northeast of Italy, would be the buttock: 7,845 square kilometres of mountainous landscape bordering on Austria, Slovenia and the Adriatic Sea. Here you will find the Dolomites.

While most wine enthusiasts think of Friuli as a white wine region producing delicious dry Friulano, Ribolla Gialla and Malvasia Istriana — as well as three of Italy’s best dessert wines, Verduzzo, Ramandolo and Picolit — the region boasts a bewildering number of indigenous red varieties that even the most ardent wine lover may never have heard of. In his monumental book Native Wine Grapes of Italy, Ian D’Agata writes about a seven-year DNA study between 2001 and 2008 on 178 grape varieties. The researchers came to the conclusion that 38 varieties (21 red and 17 white) were to be found only in Friuli, “and only 15 had been previously described in existing literature and ancient documents.”