2023 Marco Sara Colli Orientali del Friuli Ribolla Gialla

About the producer

Three generations of winemaking precede the young, soft-spoken yet ambitious Marco Sara. Marco has no formal winemaking background-- he didn't go to enology school or travel the world for a year tasting wine; he simply loves his family's land on the upper hills of the Colli Orientali of central Friuli. Marco, aided by his lovely wife Sandra, has pieced together a humble yet up-to-date winery under their house in Povoletto, north of Udine. They vinify both white and red wines all from the native local grape varieties: friulano, ribolla gialla, refosco, schioppettino, verduzzo and picolit. Winemaking is rigorously natural; native yeast ferments usually in stainless steel, no fining or filtration and little, if any, sulfur is used only at bottling. Being a native Friulano, Marco is fiercely proud of his white wines (Friulano and Ribolla Gialla), and with good cause because they are quite special. Marco does not use skin contact for his white wines, rather they are directly pressed and fermented slowly in cement and stainless steel. They are pristine by bottling time and always showcase mineral, ripeness and a salinity that Marco attributes to the marne soils in his terraced vineyards. The reds, cuvees made from refosco, schioppettino and cabernet franc planted in 1968 produce elegant, spicy, earthy and profound wines. They are, of course, naturally fermented and age in old oak barrels, some Burgundian in size and origin others are larger and made of Hungarian oak.