Borgo del Tiglio Rosso Riserva: The Road Less Traveled

BY ERIC GUIDO |&nbsp;MARCH 20, 2024I’ve been visiting
Mattia Manferrari and his father, Nicola, for several years. Borgo del Tiglio is one of the first
appointments I secure when planning a trip to Friuli because they are a benchmark.
The Studio di Bianco and Ronco della Chiesa are the wines that come to mind
when collectors hear Borgo del Tiglio and
with good reason. Nicola Manferrari, a master of Tocai Friulano, spent the last four decades perfecting his craft
and creating what could be considered Friuli’s greatest white wines. But many
people don’t realize that Manferrari also spent that time perfecting what he believed to be the best red grape to grow in
the region, Merlot, even when it was far from fashionable. Amazingly, it only
took him four years to begin producing the red wine that started turning heads
amongst consumers and critics, the 1985 Rosso della Centa, but that
didn’t stop Manferrari from making continued improvements. Those improvements
resulted in a second wine that often drinks and ages just as well as the first,
the Rosso Riserva, which is the focus of this vertical.&nbsp;<img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1710944310724-Borgo+del+Tiglio+Hamlet+and+winery_copy.jpg">The Borgo del Tiglio hamlet and winery. 

This should come as no
surprise to the fans of the estate. Nicola Manferrari came to winemaking without any
formal education as an enologist or an agronomist. Instead, Manferrari studied
both chemistry and biology while training to be a pharmacist. However, after Manferrari’s
father died in 1981, he found himself tending to three hectares of vines that
had been in the family for generations. Manferrari quickly fell in love with
farming and winemaking but wasn’t satisfied with his earliest efforts. This
inspired him to begin following the lessons of French winemakers, looking to
Champagne and Bordeaux, and even studying the language to help him traverse any
material he could find on the topic. Manferrari’s scientific mind guided him to
constantly experiment and look beyond the ideas of the local winemakers of the
time.&nbsp;

Today,
Mattia Manferrari is leading the charge, with Nicola still heavily involved in
the day-to-day operations. Mattia Manferrari officially started at the winery,
working initially on the commercial side in 2016, yet recalls an entire
childhood of working amongst the vines and in the winery.<img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1710944335010-Mattia%2C+current+generation%2C+and+his+father%2C+Nicola+Manferrari_copy.jpg">Mattia&nbsp;Manferrari, the current generation running the winery, and his father, Nicola Manferrari. The Rosso Riserva (Collio Merlot and Collio Rosso) The story of the Collio Rosso Riserva is intimately entwined
with Rosso della Centa (100% Merlot), Borgo del Tiglio’s top red. Upon taking over his
family vineyards, Nicola Manferrari heavily focused on the
development of his Friulano, yet he also owned a one-hectare parcel of old vine
Merlot on the San Giorgio hills in Brazzano. This was a perfect location for
the variety, with marl and sandstone soils, steep inclines and terraced dry-stone
walls. However, Manferrari wasn’t happy with the result of his Merlot in the
first vintage, so he began studying Bordeaux techniques. In those first years, Borgo del Tiglio produced a Collio
Merlot in 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1987, 1988 and 1989. In 1991, Cabernet
Sauvignon, planted in the San Giorgio vineyard in 1987, was introduced in the
blend with the Merlot. Starting with the 1996 vintage, Manferrari named this
wine Rosso Riserva. Manferrari came to this decision to differentiate this wine
from the new Collio Rosso (white label) made with young vines and recently
purchased vineyards or fruit not deemed suitable for the Riserva or Rosso della
Centa. The Rosso della Centa, instead, debuted in 1988 with the 1985 vintage
and has always hailed from a Merlot plot within the San Giorgio vineyard.&nbsp;Rosso
della Centa, one of Italy’s most iconic reds, is only bottled in the very best
years. So far, it has been produced only 12 times: 1985, 1986, 1990, 1995,
1996, 1999, 2001, 2006, 2010, 2011, 2015 and 2018.

The 1985 was a huge success despite a commonly held belief
that Friuli could not make great red wines. However, Manferrari only wanted to
produce Rosso della Centa in vintages that he believed were of the highest
quality. He decided that the Collio Merlot, or Collio Rosso Riserva, would be
made in the years that his vines did not achieve the special qualities to
warrant the higher-end bottling. Local beliefs about red varieties were also
focused more on Cabernet than Merlot at the time. Yet even today, Manferrari
will tell you that the soils are too compact, and the region's climate doesn’t
favor Cabernet Sauvignon. Even so, Manferrari decided to plant a small Cabernet
Sauvignon parcel in 1987, which was first added to the Rosso in 1990 (a vintage
that is no longer available to taste at the winery). With the inclusion of
Cabernet Sauvignon, the Collio Merlot then became the Collio Rosso and, over
time, when the DOC rules changed in 1995, the Collio Rosso Riserva.&nbsp;<img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1710944377003-Overlooking+Brazzano+di+Cormons+from+the+Borgo+di+Tiglio+vineyards__copy.jpg">Overlooking Brazzano di Cormons from the Borgo di Tiglio vineyards. 

The percentage of Merlot to Cabernet can vary from vintage to
vintage, depending on the character of the vintage, with Merlot usually taking
the lead from 60 to 90%. The 2001 vintage is an outlier. It produced a
fantastic crop of Cabernet Sauvignon, resulting in a blend of 60% Cabernet
Sauvignon and 40% Merlot. By the same token, in a year like 2007, the Rosso was
made entirely from Merlot as the Cabernet couldn’t achieve ideal ripeness and
added harsh tannins. Manferrari was never truly satisfied with the performance
of his Cabernet, and in 2017, decided to tear up the vines, once again making
the Collio Rosso Riserva a varietal Merlot.&nbsp;

Today, depending on the quality of the vintage, Borgo del Tiglio can produce
both the Rosso Riserva and Rosso della Centa, or one or the other, which I
notated whenever possible in the following notes. If a vintage doesn’t warrant
a Rosso della Centa, that juice can be used to bolster the Rosso Riserva. When
neither wine is made, Borgo del Tiglio declassifies the wine down to their
“White Label” range or sells it in bulk.

From a winemaking standpoint, very little has changed over
the years, starting with the second vintage of Collio Merlot, which aged in two
brand-new French barriques. To this day, the average amount of French oak used for
the Rosso Riserva is about 75%. The grapes for the Rosso Riserva are fully
destemmed and fed by gravity into twelve-hectoliter conical steel vats. Before
1990, the vats were all concrete. After fermentation, the wine rests on the
skins for another three weeks before being moved, by gravity, into barriques,
where it completes malolactic fermentation and then rests for two years, with
typically one racking.<img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1710944404364-The+Collio+Merlot%2C+to+Collio+Rosso+and+finally+Rosso+Riserva_copy2.jpg">The Collio Merlot to Collio Rosso and finally to the Rosso Riserva. A Few Generalizations About This Tasting First and
foremost, the aging curve on the Rosso Riserva is nothing short of amazing. I
was overly impressed with the freshness and energy in the wines going back to
the mid-eighties. In fact, it was only the early eighties wines that showed
past their peak. In the younger wines, as in 2000 and beyond, each vintage
still showed an ability to improve further in bottle. Another interesting point
is the quality I found in the Rosso Riserva even in years when both wines were
produced, such as 1986, 1996, 2001 and 2018. This shows the tremendous
potential of these vines and how the Rosso Riserva has graduated beyond being
more than just a second wine. Both vineyards that produce the Rosso Riserva and
the Rosso della Centa are located around the
winery with a similar terroir. Yet, the former hails only from a very distinct
plot at mid-slope planted in the 1970s. Having said that, I’m amazed by the
small amount of attention the Rosso Riserva received over time.<img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1710944440564-Collio+Merlot+original+label_copy.jpg">The Collio Merlot original label. 

I tasted
through the Collio Rosso Riserva vertical along with Mattia and Nicola Manferrari at their winery in Brazzano di
Cormòns in December 2023. The winery and tasting room are just meters from the
vines producing the Rosso Riserva and Rosso
della Centa. Due to availability and time constraints, we did not taste the
Collio Merlot/Collio Rosso from 1981, 1986, 1991, 1993 and 2008.&nbsp;© 2024, Vinous. No portion of this article may be copied, shared or re-distributed without prior consent from Vinous. Doing so is not only a violation of our copyright, but also threatens the survival of independent wine criticism.<hr> You Might Also Enjoy<a target="_blank" href="https://vinous.com/articles/pride-and-tradition-the-friulian-way-apr-2023">Pride and Tradition: The Friulian Way</a>, Eric Guido, April 2023 <a target="_blank" href="https://vinous.com/articles/friuli-venezia-giulia-just-try-to-keep-up-apr-2022">Friuli-Venezia Giulia: Just Try to Keep Up</a>, Eric Guido, April 2022 <div><div></div></div><div><div><div><div><a target="_blank" href="https://vinous.com/articles/friuli-venezia-giulia-in-constant-motion-jan-2021">Friuli Venezia Giulia – In Constant Motion</a>, Eric Guido, January 2021<a target="_blank" href="https://vinous.com/articles/borgo-del-tiglio-a-study-in-whites-1982-2011-nov-2013">Borgo del Tiglio – A Study in Whites: 1982-2011</a>, Antonio Galloni, November 2013 </div></div></div></div>

Content

Engage

Vinous

Social