Wines

“Bianco Breg” is a blend of Pinot Grigio and Sauvignon, with smaller proportions of Riesling Italico and Chardonnay. The varieties are fermented separately in buried amphorae, but they’re blended before their long stint in barrel, spending six years commingling and harmonizing. Compared to the cerebral Ribolla, “Breg” is more aromatically exuberant, more fruit-forward, and a bit more immediately approachable. One catches traces of the Sauvignon’s assertive citrus glean, hints of the Riesling’s regal poise and minerality, and one feels the breadth and generosity of the Pinot Grigio’s ample texture. All weave together into a delicious whole that is both explosively aromatic and deeply earthy, bright and ringing yet coiled and powerful.

Gravner’s cellar methodology for the indigenous Ribolla is simple, if extreme: bunches, harvested by hand, are transferred by gravity into subterranean amphorae, where they macerate for several weeks; the wine is then pressed and moved back into amphorae for five months, then transferred to large Slavonian casks (all well used) for six years before bottling, with nothing added along the way except trace amounts of sulfur, and without fining or filtration of any kind. The wine rests several more years in bottle in Gravner’s deep storage cellar before being released to an adoring public.

In certain vintages that merit it, Gravner produces their version of a Ribolla Riserva (labeled “R” plus the last two digits of the year): a selection of the best fruit at harvest, aged six full years in Slavonian oak and seven years in bottle (magnums only) before release. Ribolla, particularly when raised in such a structure-prizing manner as Gravner’s, can display remarkable longevity, and the Riserva arrives on the market having already undergone significant positive evolution. Here, the salty-savory interplay shows more blatant umami notes, and wine’s the lurking mineral core emerges more forcefully now that the primary fruit elements have subsided a bit.

Gravner’s formidable Pinot Grigio shows the immense depth and complexity this variety is capable of when treated with respect. A selection of the best Pinot Grigio in a given harvest, this ferments naturally in buried Georgian amphorae with a long maceration, and after pressing and a further five months aging in those same vessels, the wine is moved to old oak casks for six years, then held in bottle a further five years before being released into the market. In its luscious power, its staggering breadth, and its palate-staining intensity, it plumbs the outer limits of Pinot Grigio’s expressive capabilities.

Formerly known simply as the "Pinot Grigio Riserva," this wine was rechristened "Sivi Pinot" with the 2009 vintage. Gravner’s formidable Pinot Grigio shows the immense depth and complexity this variety is capable of when treated with respect. A selection of the best Pinot Grigio in a given harvest, this ferments naturally in buried Georgian amphorae with a long maceration, and after pressing and a further five months aging in those same vessels, the wine is moved to old oak casks for six years, then held in bottle a further five years before being released into the market. In its luscious power, its staggering breadth, and its palate-staining intensity, it plumbs the outer limits of Pinot Grigio’s expressive capabilities.

The ”Rosso Gravner” is a blend of roughly 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon from vines planted in the early 1960s. Merlot can achieve notable complexity in the Collio, particularly when handled with Gravner’s level of skill and sensitivity, and this wine shows dazzling notes of umami and soy sauce atop a core of chiseled dark fruits and assertive savory spices. It ferments naturally in buried Georgian amphorae for four weeks, then passes four years in well-used oak barrels before being bottled without fining or filtration.

The indigenous and little-known Pignolo variety finds an astonishing level of depth, complexity, and visceral power in Gravner’s hands. For this, the “Rosso Breg,” Josko ferments Pignolo spontaneously in subterranean Georgian amphorae, then transfers the wine to well-used Slavonian casks for five years, followed by an astonishing nine years in bottle before release. Kaleidoscopic in its aromas of tobacco, spice, and neutron-star-dense black fruits, the wine all but levitates on the palate despite its intensity, so seamlessly integrated are its elements. A bass note of umami sends this wine into another dimension.

Produced only in exceptional vintages, the ultra-rare “Rosso Rujno” is a blend of the Merlot (90%) and Cabernet Sauvignon (10%) that would ordinarily comprise the “Rosso Gravner” but in this case undergo an even longer aging regimen: seven years in barrel, followed by seven years in bottle, before the wine is released. Josko finds profound significance in the number seven; it is the number of years required for the human body’s cells to completely regenerate, and—at any given time, in some real physical sense—we are all completely different people than we were seven years prior. Given the arc of his career, it is perhaps no surprise that renewal is a topic dear to Josko’s heart… Despite its Bordeaux origins, Merlot can achieve notable complexity in the Collio, particularly when handled with Gravner’s level of skill and sensitivity, and the Rosso Rujno is flat-out breathtaking. The vines’ age (planted in 1953) makes itself known in an overall sense of concentration, but a mineral-drenched freshness dominates the palate even as umami notes swirl and dazzle. Its sense of equilibrium and complexity would shame many a fancy Bordeaux to which it might be compared, but its underlying visceral power and unfettered wildness are Gravner through-and-through.

This very special and rare bottling is produced exclusively from botrytised Ribolla grapes; it is a blend of three separate vintages: from the harvest of 23 November 2008, the harvest of 13 November 2009, the harvest of 15 November 2010; fermentation in amphora, then aged in small oak barrels; bottled in July 2015 without fining or filtration; only 1,200 bottles produced (presented as a single bottle in a wooden case).