After the death of his father, Nicola Manferrari left his job as a pharmacist to harvest his father’s small holdings in Collio, and he never looked back. Nicola taught himself French so he could read François Champagnol’s Éléments de physiologie de la vigne et de viticulture générale, which inspired Nicola’s inventive winemaking techniques. His production of predominantly white wines are left to ferment completely, resulting in a dry complexity. He achieves this complexity by blending different batches that have all been harvested and produced separately, allowing each individual characteristic to shine through.
Fermentation takes place in small wooden barrels, and the wines are in contact with the lees for nine to 10 months. The red wines are fermented in open wooden vats and then decanted into part-new wooden kegs, where they remain for an average of two years. This very hands-off approach encourages the terroir to shine. Nicola remains inspired by his favorite quote, from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: “The land gives us, for our part, more lessons than any books. Because it offers resistance. When pitting himself against an obstacle, man discovers himself…The farmer, when ploughing, draws out, bit by bit, certain secrets from nature, and the truth he uncovers is universal.”
