Gravner - Ribolla 2013

NZD$255.00

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'This is the ultimate in skin-contact drinking. 2013 is the lowest yielding vintage in Gravner’s history with only 18 000 bottles of Ribolla produced. The season provided incredibly concentrated fruit with the wine showing exuberance and complexity. Incredibly rare and one for the collector.'

This amber wine is made in a very peculiar way; the famous local Ribolla grapes are destemmed, crushed and placed in the Georgian amphoras (called qvevri), which are buried straight in the soil of the underground cellar. It's environment - the Earth - naturally controls the fermentation temperature. After 6-7 months of macerated alcoholic fermentation and malolactic transformation, and having periodic punchdowns to submerge the skins cap to the bottom, the amphoras are emptied and cleaned, and after pressing in a small vertical press placed conveniently in the cellar, the wine returns the the qvevris for further aging of some 5-6 months until the new harvest takes pace. The wine is then racked into big Italian botti (big volume oak casks) for further aging and fining for at least 6 years before bottling.

In short: the wine spent over 6 months on the skins, in total of 1 year in underground amphoras, and also has 6 years of aging in bog oak casks.

A unique wine, and of it's own class in the orange wine world!

This cuvée comes from the ancient, indigenous Ribolla Gialla variety, which has been planted in the area for over 1,000 years. The vineyards are tended biodynamically by the Gravner family.

The wine fermented naturally in Georgian amphorae (qvevri) on the skins, underground, after which it was aged for a further five years in old oak barrels. It was bottled unfined, unfiltered and with just a touch of sulphur.

GRAVNER

The vineyards of the domaine curl over the hills passing seamlessly across the border of Italy into the slopes of Slovenia. Meticulously maintained, the rows of grapevines settle into terraces that are dotted throughout with trees and bodies of water designed to attract wildlife and assure biodiversity. Gravner is steadily replanting to assure the primacy of the autochthonous grape varieties of Ribolla and Pignolo. After determining that stainless steel was not a proper marriage for his wines in the 1990s, Josko Gravner decided to follow the ancient wine-producing techniques used in the Caucasus and has began fermenting his wines in huge amphorae buried in the ground in his cellars in 2001, with a full conversion for all wines as of 2004. The whites, which make up about 85% of the estate’s production, spend about 10 months total in amphorae, with the reds a shorter 1 to 2 months. He insists on aging his wines in large barrels for many years so release dates for most wines are from 7 to 10 years and more from the date of harvest.