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Gravner, Ribolla

Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy 2011 (750mL)
Regular price$85.00
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Gravner, Ribolla

Last year, when Italian legend and Gravner founder Josko Gravner sat down to taste his most recent Ribolla releases (2008-2011), he declared today’s offer as the clear favorite. That alone should’ve been the only endorsement needed. But we still greedily demanded a sample, and were instantly blown away by its raw power, purity, and exoticism—no other wine on earth can replicate this. There’s a reason wine authorities have called Gravner “iconic,” “legendary,” and “The King of Italian Wine.” This man is the real deal. He’s a five-decade veteran, and his wines will be immortalized and analyzed for generations to come.


For the few souls that still remain in the dark, today’s tremendously long-aged 2011 Ribolla is Josko’s spellbinding, class-defining, skin-contact white. It’s the one that put him on the map as a cult phenom and the one that's graced every cutting-edge wine list around the globe. Quite simply, it’s the singular reason critics began bowing down to Gravner. His 2011 is a wine of truly epic proportions, one that aged in a combination of buried amphorae, massive barrels, and bottle for nearly nine years before release. That fanatic level of patience in the cellar is part of the reason he’s earned a global cult following, the other part is what lies inside the bottle. Every sip brings fathomless depth, curiosity, and intoxicating opulence, with each passing hour unlocking new dimensions of flavor. With over 50 vintages under his belt, nobody except Josko knows how much longer he’ll craft wine which is why I always urge people to buy these rarefied gems while they still can!


While many would call today’s Ribolla an “orange” wine (a white wine that sees extended skin contact), those who follow Josko Gravner’s wines closely know that he refuses to acknowledge the term. In an interview with the Italian Wine Chronicle, he proclaimed that “my wines are not orange; if a wine is orange, it’s oxidized.” Above all, they are wines of purity, profound depth, and superb levels of freshness; the defining feature of this legendary estate. But before we talk about today's flagship Ribolla, it’s worth delving into its extraordinary backstory. 


It all starts three centuries ago when the Gravner family settled and began farming the same small hillside in Oslavia, on Italy’s border with Slovenia. The Gravner family persevered through multiple empires and World Wars, and in the 1980s and ‘90s, Josko Gravner was becoming an increasingly important figure in modern Italian wine. With all the state-of-the-art winemaking equipment, vineyards full of Chardonnay and Merlot, and cellars full of new oak barrels, Josko had engineered an impressive and consistent system for bottling rich, powerful, young-release wines that commanded high magazine scores and sold-out demand. Still, one night after a long day of wine tasting and vineyard tours during a research expedition in Napa Valley, Josko was struck by an epiphany—he was making “modern” wine that sold well, but expressed little about the nature, history, and soul of his land. 


So, upon return, he completely changed course, uprooting most of his “international” varieties and replanting to his hometown’s native grapes, Pignolo and Ribolla Gialla. Josko also sold off his stainless steel fermenters and his wooden barriques in favor of large, terra cotta amphorae acquired from a friend in Georgia (as in the Caucasus, where winemaking culture is widely believed to have originated). He modeled his operation in Friuli after the ultra-traditional wineries he saw during a pilgrimage to Georgia, burying the amphorae in the earth and fermenting the wines in the most primitive way possible—with all grape clusters intact; only native airborne yeasts for fermentation; no temperature control; no fining or filtration; and only the slightest hint of sulfur at bottling. In short, Gravner makes wine in much the same way as it was made thousands of years ago.


In building a bridge between modern and ancient wine, Josko has inspired an entire generation of winemakers to explore ancient vinification methods, and today, one can see his thumbprint in almost every wine region in the world. Perhaps most importantly for those of us who consume the finished product, Josko insists on holding back the release of his wines until they’ve entered their prime drinking window. Today’s definitively unique white spent six months in underground amphorae sourced from Georgia, after which it spent roughly six years aging in large oak barrels. Upon bottling without fining or filtering, it aged further in his cellar. All told, nearly nine years passed before this transcendent Ribolla was released. 


Let’s first address the elephant in the room: Gravner’s 2011 Ribolla is 15.5% ABV. Yes, higher than Brunello and Barolo, right in line with Amarone, and nearly drifting towards “fortified” alcohol levels. But allow me to be extremely clear: You can’t taste/feel it. This is certainly rich but incredibly balanced and pure with pronounced weightlessness as it glides across your palate. In the glass, the wine displays burnished amber and gold hues with immense concentration and viscosity. It erupts with poached Bosc pear, apricot liqueur, quince paste, bitter orange, dried marigolds, acacia honey, beeswax, chamomile, wild herbs—essentially aromatics that don’t generally exist in a single wine. The palate is full-bodied and full-throttle, exploding with dense layers of rich stone fruit, marmalade, spice, and crushed minerals that linger for minutes, especially after opening up. That said, with this 2011, I highly recommend pulling the cork and allowing it to sit loosely on top for several hours, or decanting for at least 60 minutes before serving in Burgundy stems around 55 degrees. Sip slowly in order to best track its evolution, then, cork it tight at the end of the night and try it the following day. Repeat. As for your other bottles? There’s absolutely no rush—this has another 10-15 years, easily. Cheers!

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Italy

Northwestern Italy

Piedmont

Italy’s Piedmont region is really a wine “nation”unto itself, producing world-class renditions of every type of wine imaginable: red, white, sparkling, sweet...you name it! However, many wine lovers fixate on the region’s most famous appellations—Barolo and Barbaresco—and the inimitable native red that powers these wines:Nebbiolo.

Tuscany

Chianti

The area known as “Chianti” covers a major chunk of Central Tuscany, from Pisa to Florence to Siena to Arezzo—and beyond. Any wine with “Chianti” in its name is going to contain somewhere between 70% to 100% Sangiovese, and there are eight geographically specific sub-regions under the broader Chianti umbrella.

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