Gravner Ribolla 2014 Venezia Giulia IGT
GravnerGrape:Ribolla Gialla
Vintage: 2014
Type: Orange
A very rainy and generally tough year. Nevertheless, the grapes produced – especially those from old vines – were robust and developed a reasonable level of noble rot. Last day of harvesting: Monday, 20 October.
Made from Ribolla grapes. While fermenting in Georgian amphorae buried underground, it underwent a long maceration with wild yeasts and no temperature control. After the drawing off and pressing phases the wine was poured back into amphorae for at least five more months before it started ageing in large oak barrels, where it was left for six years.
Gravner
Long aged, long lived, and profound, we invite you to discover the magic that can be bottled in Italy’s North easternmost corner.
I make wines for myself. What’s left—I sell.’ Josko Gravner
In the hills above Gorizia, in sight of both the Julian Alps and the Adriatic, Joško Gravner’s family has made wine in the neighboring villages of Hum and Oslavia for generations.
Oslavia is a small hamlet near the town of Gorizia in the Friuli region, situated on the Collio.
The estate has a a total surface area of 32 hectares, of which 18 hectares are currently vineyards. The remaining land comprises woods, meadows and ponds.
A highly acclaimed producer of technical, stylish Friulian wines early in his career, Joško underwent a crisis of faith in the mid-1990’s, realizing that he simply didn’t enjoy drinking his own wines anymore. The story of his perilous journey into the Caucasus mountains and his encounters with millennia-old Georgian viticultural traditions has been well told by now, but it is not an exaggeration to say that Gravner is among those who prevented millennia-old vinicultural practices from disappearing from his homeland.
“Little by little I started getting rid of all the extra equipment I had bought, starting with steel wine tanks and ending with barrique barrels. I don't think it is possible that, over the last few decades, five thousand years of winemaking history have been erased so easily.”