2014 Ribolla Gialla
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Tasting notes
From a much cooler vintage that generally produced slender and elegant wines, this is a darkly colored orange wine with shiny copper and ruby highlights. The Gravner 2014 Ribolla is a very successful interpretation of this unique grape from northeast Italy. Although you get macerated flavors that are found in other vintages, this wine shows more silkiness and subdued nuance. It does not have as much of that dusty white grape tannic quality that you often get in these wines. The bouquet is beautiful, with dried apricot and brandy, and this wine from 2014 is drinking beautifully right now.
Critic scores
Average Score
Walter Speller, jancisrobinson.com
Monica Larner, Wine Advocate
More reviews and scores
Like falling down the rabbit hole, the 2014 Ribolla Gialla Anfora entrances with a menagerie of dried apricots, peaches, honeyed florals, ginger-tinged baked pear and dusty stone. It engulfs the palate with plush textures, displaying medium-bodied weight, with enriching notes of apple butter complicated by allspice and minerals that add a more tactile feel. This resonates with blood orange and an air of cedar while maintaining a spellbinding vivacity. There's an energy and lightness of being encapsulated within the 2014 that I find wildly appealing.
Sample 1 : from the Gravner glass. Just a touch paler than the 2013. Pale golden amber. Seductive and deep, yet cool. Acacia honey with dried-apricot and chamomile hints and a layer of crushed wet stones and lapsang oolong. On the palate, a richer impression with enormous depth, yet contained, and with fantastic, tactile acidity that seamlessly ties in the fruit. Very fine tannic tail on the finish. Sample 2 : from a conventional wine glass. A layered, deep, savoury nose that tends towards dried-apricot fruit with hints of salt in which capers were preserved. Orange, honey and hints of fruit mostarda . It is almost perfumed and rises out of the glass like a cloud. Long, tightly stitched together with a super-fine, sandpapery texture. (WS)
About the producer
Along with the likes of Radikon, Joško Gravner – whose vines straddle the Italian-Slovenian border – is a leading light of the natural-wine movement. His skin-contact Ribolla Gialla has inspired many imitators, while the rare Pignolo is prized by those in the know.