Joško Gravner’s family has made wine in the villages of Hum and Oslavia for generations. Their vineyards sit on the foothills of the Julian Alps from which you can look out over the great light of the Adriatic. Friuli is a land that has been traded back and forth between countries for centuries and it has a fascinating blend of cultures: Italian, Austro-Hungarian, Yugoslavian, and Slovenian. Early in his career, Gravner embraced a style of technical white wines that were highly acclaimed but in the mid 90s he underwent a crisis of faith, realizing he simply didn’t enjoy drinking his own wines anymore. He journeyed into the Caucasus mountains in an effort to rediscover some direction within himself and encountered the millennia-old Georgian viticultural traditions of long skin maceration of white grapes aged in amphora. He returned to combine his formidable cellar skills with the Georgian style of skin macerated white wines and began creating some of the most profound, unique, long lived wines in the world. Joško says that “through [the land’s] cycles, its transformations, its inhabitants, its fruits and the work of the people – it is turned into something more and better than the mere sum of all these factors.” He believes that his interactions with his earth and the vines reveals a kind of truth.
2012 Gravner, Bianco Breg, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy this is the last vintage of this cuvee that will be made. The cuvee is made up of sauvignon blanc, pinot grigio, riesling italico, and chardonnay which are fermented separately on their skins in buried Georgian amphora with no temperature control and natural yeasts. After it is pressed off its skins it goes back into amphorae for five more months before being moved to large used oak barrels where it ages for six years. The wine is bottled without fining or filtration. The color is like if stained glass could be made of honey. And drinking the wine gives the sensation of being inside of that honeyed light: all apricot and dried peach, honey and jasmine flowers. Incredibly deep and amber flavors.
The integrity of your wine is our highest concern. Orders placed during the summer months will be put on hold and fulfilled as soon as temperatures permit. Learn more here.
