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Gravner Ribolla Venezia-Giulia Bianco 2016

Gravner
$140.00

Grape: Ribolla Gialla
Vintage: 2016
Type: Orange

This orange wine showcases the mastery of extended skin contact and amphora aging from the Oslavia hills. The estate manages the vineyards using low-intervention protocols, allowing the hand-picked ribolla gialla grapes to ferment spontaneously with native vineyard wild yeasts. Vinification takes place entirely inside buried Georgian amphorae without temperature controls or synthetic adjustments. The wine matures on its fine lees in clay before undergoing a multi-year aging process in large neutral Slavonian oak barrels.

It pours a rich amber hue, releasing intense aromas of dried apricots, honey, orange peel, and wild herbs. On the palate, the textured, full-bodied frame balances ripe stone fruit flavors with an underlying earthy minerality. Firm, tea-like tannins provide a smooth structural grip that coordinates nicely with a vibrant line of natural acidity. Subtle notes of tea leaves, saffron, and iodine add depth across the waxy mouthfeel. It concludes with a long, structured finish.

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.”