The 2004 Collio Ronco della Chiesa (old-vine Tocai) is sweet and expansive on the palate. Nuanced in its aromatics and flavors, it offers plenty of fruit, even if it isn’t quite as generous as the rest of the wines in this lineup. Anticipated maturity: 2007-2011.
Proprietor Nicola Manferrari makes some of the region’s most elegant wines at his small estate in the Collio. Manferrari is part of the movement that sought to improve quality in the region by focusing on high-quality vineyard practices beginning in the early 1980s. He and his contemporaries wanted to make riper wines, which also required a shift away from the prevailing Schiopetto-influenced school of thought and a look towards Burgundy rather than Germany as a source of inspiration. In the cellar Manferrari is quite content to let the wines express the qualities of the vintage, so there are no hard and fast rules when it comes to malolactic fermentations for his whites, among other topics, although all the wines are aged in French oak. This is a beautiful set of wines from Nicola Manferrari and Borgo del Tiglio.
Importer: Petit Pois, Moorestown, NJ; tel. (856) 608-9644