Mattia and his sister Lara are the young owners, vignerons and winemakers at Azienda Agricola Scarbolo, the family winery they ‘took over’ from their father around 2017. We’d actually been in touch with Mattia about a year later and it was clear at that stage that something a little bit ‘interesting’ was going on. The wines were amazing but for whatever reasons, we couldn’t quite see the right place for them in the portfolio at the time, We stayed in touch though and early in 2025, Mattia and Lara, several vintages ‘in’, and Third Floor, established and on a nice upward trajectory … well, suddenly it felt like the perfect fit. There’s a couple of things they want to say when you meet up with them … actually, there’s about 2793 things they want to say (and you definitely want to hear) … but there’s a couple for starters.
Firstly, Grave del Friuli, the bit of Friuli they’re in, is the least sexy part of Friuli. You go 30 minutes up the road to Collio if you want wall to wall sexiness. It’s not very hilly or scenic around Lauzacco, and there’s not many big names just down the gravel lanes left or right of the road. … it’s just mainly ‘steady as you go’, comfortable, decent enough, but maybe not ‘special’. We think they quite like that, firstly because it paints a gentle, ‘nice’ bucolic sort of background, against which they can contrast and secondly because they know very well indeed that it needn’t be so and there’s just as much, albeit different potential here as there is 30 minutes north. They’re not on any sort of regional or competitive crusade, it just gives a nice canvas for them to work from. The other thing they really want to tell you … and early in the meeting … is that the world has got it wrong with Pinot Grigio, it’s not a white grape, it’s a black one. Google it and you find lots of pictures of it looking a bit ‘coppery’ … but that’s just another reason why you shouldn’t always believe what you see on the interweb … It’s black, it’s definitely black, go and stand in Codis vineyard when they are harvesting … that is Pinot Grigio and it is Black! Good, that’s that sorted then…. This feels like a very exciting partnership for us … special even, and rather than writing another 5 pages, we’d urge you simply to do just a couple of things … read a few of the ‘seasonal diaries’ on their fabulously unconventional but brilliantly informative, authentic and very human website (www.scarbolo.com ) … and then buy at least a couple of the wines … Pipinot and Salvadi as highly coloured versions, Mepari as a sort of ‘Blanc de Noir’ or Areore as a sublime field blend of 3 other grapes.
