You can begin a lifelong search or you can take my word at face value: There isn’t a wine on earth that can replicate Josko Gravner’s tremendously long-aged and rarefied Ribolla. These amber-hued gems are chameleonic marvels that yield a truly singular experience. As such, there’s a reason wine authorities have called Josko Gravner “iconic,” “legendary,” and “The King of Italian Wine,” and I’m here to confirm that this is no hyperbolic stretch. This man is the real deal. He’s a five-decade veteran, and his wines, especially today’s exotic, pulse-quickening 2010 Ribolla, will be remembered for generations. Even their importer said it had “an extra dimension” and went so far as to say it was the best Gravner he’s ever had. As I drank my bottle over five days, I found it increasingly hard to disagree with that sentiment.
For the few souls that still remain in the dark, today’s Ribolla is Josko’s spellbinding, class-defining, flagship white. 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. Quite simply, it’s the singular reason critics began bowing deeply to Gravner. Today’s 2010 is a wine of truly epic proportions, one that ages for a year in buried amphorae and then six more in large barrels. This fanatic level of patience in the cellar is part of the reason he’s earned a global cult following, but what’s inside the bottle is what really counts: Every sip brings fathomless depth and luxurious, constantly evolving layers of exoticism that introduce you to a whole new spectrum of flavor. We don’t know how much longer Josko will be in the wine game, but I can assure you he’ll hang up his farm boots long before we’re ready—that’s why I always urge people to buy while you still can!
While many would call today’s Ribolla an “orange” wine (a white wine that sees extended skin contact), those who follow 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.” His are wines of purity, profound depth, and, above all, superb levels of freshness.
Long story short, Josko Gravner’s whites are the defining feature of this legendary estate. But before we talk about their 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 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 a year in underground amphorae sourced from Georgia, after which it spent six years aging in large oak barrels. Upon bottling without fining or filtering, it aged for a further year in his cellar.
Gravner’s Ribolla is consistently one of the most coveted skin-contact white wines on the market because each release delivers an exceptionally unique wine experience. With these wines, I always recommend serving in Burgundy stems, around 55 degrees, and sipping slowly in order to best track its evolution. Try it 30 minutes after opening, then around the 1-2 hour mark. Come back to it at the end of the night. Cork it tight, and try it the following day, and then the next. With seven years in amphora and barrel, it has become battle-hardened and oxygen tolerant. That’s why I recommend purchasing at least 2-3 bottles because there is so much life ahead of this and every time you open one, it can be tracked for days. In the glass, Gravner’s 2010 Ribolla reveals a dark amber core with gold and copper reflections. Exotic aromas unfurl slowly: red apple skin, quince, apricot paste, beeswax, saffron, honey, dried pineapple, stewed plum, crushed nuts, damp herbs, orange peel, wet stone, preserved lemon, (smell it long enough and you’ll discover aromas that you’ve probably never experienced before!). The palate offers a full-body, full-sensory experience with intense layers of wild fruit, savory earth, and spiciness—“like a dry Sauternes” says the importer. Truly, you’ll never forget your first bottle of Gravner, and for those that are already well-versed, you’ll never forget your first bottle of 2010. Cheers!
