Gravner Rosso Breg Venezia-Giulia Rosso 2009

Gravner Rosso Breg Venezia-Giulia Rosso 2009

Gravner
$330.00

Grape: Pignolo
Vintage: 2009
Type: Red

This red wine is a pure varietal expression of the indigenous pignolo grape produced under strict zero-input protocols. Josko Gravner ferments the hand-picked fruit spontaneously with native wild yeasts inside subterranean Georgian amphorae buried deep in the cellar floor. Following pressing, the wine is transferred to well-used Slavonian oak casks for five years of structural integration. True to Gravner's patient methodology, the wine spends an additional nine years settling in the bottle before its final commercial release.

It pours a dark ruby color with deep garnet edges, releasing aromas of tobacco leaf, cracked black pepper, black cherry, and warm spice. On the palate, the full-bodied, structured frame balances a concentrated fruit core with a firm line of fine-grained tannins. Savory notes of forest floor and a umami baseline blend into a dense mouthfeel. A clean vein of natural acidity cuts through the volume, keeping the texture fresh.

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.”