Borgo del Tiglio Rosso Riserva: The Road Less Traveled
BY ERIC GUIDO |
I’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.
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.
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.
Mattia Manferrari, the current generation running the winery, and his father, Nicola Manferrari.
The Rosso Riserva (Collio Merlot and Collio Rosso)
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Why would one of the greatest producers of white wine in Italy want to organize a tasting of the second label of their red wine? This is the question that was on my mind as I drove down the country road that leads to Cormòns, the small hamlet that is home to Borgo del Tiglio.
