A devastating landslide in Friuli triggered by heavy rains across northeastern Italy on Sunday 16 November claimed two lives when a house collapsed after it was submerged with mud. A pioneering local winery bore the full brunt of the storm, with catastrophic consequences. In a special edition of the Italian Wine Podcast, Stevie Kim spoke to Mattia Manferrari of the Borgo del Tiglio winery to understand the extent of the damage and to discuss what the international wine community can do to support the victims of the disaster.
Landslide in Friuli – a winery on its knees
The Borgo del Tiglio winery is located in Brazzano, in the Collio region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, in north-eastern Italy, near the Alps and the Slovenian border. The winery is famous for producing complex, age-worthy white wines, particularly its Friulano, which helped elevate the grape to an artisanal level. The winery is also renowned for its meticulous, hands-on approach to winemaking, using low yields, careful grape selection, and aging in small oak barrels to create powerful, textured, and elegant wines.
Collio Ronco della Chiesa Friulano, a single-vineyard production, is one of Borgo del Tiglio’s signature wines. It is made from a vineyard planted with an older, aromatic clone of Friulano and is credited with revitalizing interest in high-quality Friulano wines. The winery also produces other highly-regarded white wines, including Chardonnay, Sauvignon and innovative blends like “Studio di Bianco“, another of the winery’s signature wines, as well as reds like “Collio Rosso”.
The history of Borgo del Tiglio is a little over forty years old but the family have been making wine for longer than that. The official story begins when Nicola Manferrari, Mattia’s father, took the dramatic decision to abandon his previous life as a pharmacist and dedicate himself entirely to viticulture. In fact, the family’s association with winemaking in the region goes back even further. In the 1970s, Nicola’s father, Giuseppe, originally a confectionery entrepreneur from Emilia, purchased a couple of hectares of land in his wife Thea’s homeland of Friuli. Nicola’s mother was a pharmacist and encouraged her son to follow in her footsteps. Nicola, however, had other ideas and decided to focus on the vineyard that he had once tended in his spare time, learning and studying the art of winemaking in the process.
Mattia’s father dedicated his entire life to the maintenance of these vineyards, at great personal cost, working manually and with the utmost respect for the soil-vineyard balance. He was one of the pioneers of grassing and shared his understanding of sustainability in the vineyard with many other aspiring winemakers.
Mattia has worked alongside his father in the vineyard since he was a teenager, and the family estate now extends to over seventeen hectares, of which eight are under vine. Despite the expansion, Borgo del Tiglio remains a small artisanal winemaker that produces approximately fifty thousand bottles a year.
“If we lose the whole 2025 vintage it’s over for us.”
When more than 300mm of rain fell in a few hours on the night between Sunday and Monday the hill on which the winery sits collapsed. The subsequent landslide destroyed three historic properties (the village dates from the 1600s) and struck the internal courtyard of the winery with tragic consequences. Matteo, the winery’s oenologist, was directly involved in the rescue effort to try and save the two victims of the landslide as it surged through the winery. He is recovering in hospital and is expected to make a full recovery.
The inner courtyard of the winery was filled with a mountain of dirt and trees all the way up to the first floor. There was also extensive damage to the vineyards, including the historic Ronco della Chiesa which was partially hit by the landslide. Saving that vineyard remains a priority as the cleanup continues and they evaluate the damage. After an initial assessment of the damage caused by the landslide in Friuli, the winery’s bottle storage area was found to be intact. In fact, the entire 2025 vintage in barrique is intact in the underground cellar, which is temporarily holding up, although it is buried under tons of mud. Unfortunately, the winery also lost 10,000 bottles of its historical archive, swept away by the landslide. Despite the devastation, Mattia hopes the winery will soon begin shipping again.
While Mattia believes that the immediate focus should be on those who have lost their lives and their homes in the disaster, he also wants to use this moment to raise awareness about the sustainable and traditional way Borgo del Tiglio operates. He also wants to reflect on the wider impact of climate change, which, he believes, will sooner or later affect everyone.
What can the international wine community do to support winemakers in Friuli?
The people of Friuli, like few others in the world, know how to roll up their sleeves, be supportive and resilient. But, when a calamity like the landslide in Friuli strikes, the wider wine community also needs to step up.
So, what can we do to help wineries like Borgo del Tiglio in Friuli?
- Recognise the sudden and devastating impact of climate change on fragile ecosystems, environments and small businesse
- Promote sustainability and tradition by supporting wineries like Borgo del Tiglio
- Support small independent wineries like Borgo del Tiglio by ordering directly from the winery (email: info@borgodeltiglio.it)
- Reach out to Borgo del Tiglio’s US importers, Grand Cru Selections, Lyra Wine in California, Vineyard Road in Massachusetts, Volio in Colorado.
You can listen to the full conversation with Mattia Manferrari of Borgo del Tiglio winery at www.italianwinepodcast.com or wherever you get your podcasts.
