Power. Purity. Exoticism. Depth. Persistence. No other wine on earth can replicate Josko Gravner’s exhilarating, cult-like Ribolla. Owning one of these mind-altering gems is always a rare privilege, but because of a woefully small harvest and curtailed production, this 2013 cranks the “limited factor” up a few more notches. Meaning, only a handful will ever get to taste this. And how lucky those people are: These iconic wines have been and will continue to be immortalized, idolized, and analyzed for decades to come.

For the few souls that still remain in the dark, today’s tremendously long-aged Ribolla is Josko’s spellbinding amber-hued wine. It’s the one that put him on the map as a cult phenom, the one that has graced every cutting-edge wine list around the globe; it’s the singular reason critics now bow to Gravner with deference. Today’s 2013 release racked up nearly 100 months of aging in a combination of buried amphorae, old Slavonian casks, and bottle before arriving stateside just last month. It’s already sold out via the importer, and we received (less than) half of our usual allocation. As I always say, every sip brings fathomless depth, curiosity, and intoxicating opulence, with each passing hour unlocking new dimensions of flavor. But, and this is important, I have yet to experience a vintage of Gravner Ribolla with this much elegance and freshness, so congratulations in advance for those who are quick enough to secure up to three bottles!

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 his flagship Ribolla, I think 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 failed to express 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 six years maturing in large oak barrels. Upon bottling without fining or filtering, it aged further in his cellar. All told, over eight years passed before this transcendent Ribolla was released. 

The 2011 vintage was a massive wine with huge alcohol levels to boot, and the 2012 was even bigger, but today’s 2013 is a far cry from those. Despite its brooding amber-orange-gold hue and viscous legs clinging to the rim, this is a gorgeous and infinitely refreshing Ribolla that effuses wild aromas of quince, apricot, bergamot, orange marmalade, honeysuckle, marigold, beeswax, exotic spice, and lees. The palate is full, ripe, and refreshingly dry, loaded with deep, chameleonic flavors that shift from yellow to orange before converging on an explosive finish filled with crushed minerals. It’s a wine of controlled chaos, infinite depth, and impossible lift; it’s a wine that will stun an entire room. Savor now, in five years, or 20.