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Joško Gravner, the search of excellence with amphorae

Aitor Trabado

10 May, 2017

Joško Gravner, the search of excellence with amphorae

Few things give you more satisfaction than discovering people who are passionate about their job. Wine producers, for instance, who investigate and go long distances to make things the best way they can. They use different methods, they study the terroir, the grape varieties and the aging procedures to make wine the way they envision it. They gain the respect of their peers and also of us wine lovers who discover them and enjoy so much with their creations.

Joško Gravner is one of these wine producers. He is the owner of Azienda Agricola Gravner, a winery located in Oslavia, (Gorizia) in Friuli Venezia Giulia, Italia. Joško Gravner is the man everyone talks about when the topic of the conversation is wine undergoing longer periods of aging than what other winemakers do.

The winery was established in 1901 by his ancestors. Joško took over the family business in the 1980s. In his beginnings he followed the modern vinification techniques, using steel tanks and French oak barrels, opposing the traditional ways his father employed. In 1996 two hailstorms destroyed his vineyards and all but a small quantity of Ribolla Gialla vines, so with the harvest almost gone he decided to try to macerate the grapes he could save. The experiment turned out well so with the following harvest all varieties were macerated in large wooden vats with no temperature control for a period of time between one and two weeks.

In 2000 Gravner traveled to the Caucasus area, to the Kakheti region where, following a traditional production method, wine macerates in large terracotta amphorae buried underground. He then realized that the authentic way of elaborating wine was the traditional one they used here and not the more commonly one found in the New World. He saw the way wine tasted here was his calling. So he took amphorae with him to Italy and changed completely his cellar in order to produce all his wines with the use of terracotta. He thought that if terracotta was the right way, it would be the right way for all his wines, not only for part of them. Nowadays he has 46 buried amphorae in his cellar.

The experiment he started in 1996 took another step with this use of these terracotta amphorae in 2001 and the extended periods of maceration. And with this, he started developing Orange wines, or as he prefers to call them, Amber wines. But opposing to what other producers were doing, with maceration periods of around one-two months and aging in oak for one year, he took it to the extreme. Firstly he was using Pinot Grigio, coming from the Njiva Vineyard. After harvest and fermentation, the grapes were macerated with their skins in the terracotta amphorae and buried for one year. Then the wine was aged in oak barrels for six years. Yes, six years of oak for a white wine. Three more years in the bottle and the wine was ready to be commercialized. Of this Pinot Grigio, the last vintage in the market is the 2006. To this one will follow the 2007, 2009 and 2011 vintages as Gravner decided to discontinue the production of Pinot Grigio to focus on Ribolla Gialla and Pignolo.

Joško believes in the moon cycle of life and its influence in the wines he produces. Therefore, the wine is always bottled under a waning moon. He also believes Nature takes care of the wine, so he doesn’t do anything to change or alter it. He doesn’t use chemicals or add extra yeasts, he doesn’t control the temperature of the wine while the fermentation takes place and he doesn’t filter, fine or clarify the wine.

The Gravner family owns three vineyards with a total area of 18 hectares: One in Italy: Runk, in Oslavia, and two more in Slovenia: Hum and Dedno. Ribolla Gialla and Pignolo are planted in 15 of those 18 hectares while the remaining 3 hectares are international varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot. It has to be mentioned that in the vineyards, Gravner set up a pond, so plants, insects and other animals could enjoy again their living environment so much needed for the vines to grow.

Gravner produces 6 wines:

Ribolla, with the traditional local variety, which has undergone a long maceration process in Georgian amphorae buried underground with wild yeasts and no temperature control. After pressing the wine, it was poured back into amphorae for at least five more months before it started ageing in large oak barrels, where it was left for six more years. The last vintage in the market is 2008.

Bianco Breg, a blend of Chardonnay, Sauvignon, Pinot Grigio and Riesling Italico which are fermented separately and aged together. The elaboration process is the same one as of the Ribolla’s. The last vintage in the market is 2008.

Rujno is truly a special red wine. A Merlot wine, produced only in the best years. The must is fermented on the skins in open oak vats for five weeks with wild yeasts and no temperature control. Then the wine is aged in oak barrels for seven years and subsequently in bottle for another seven years. As you can see, it has an aging period of 14 years. The last vintage in the market is 2001.

8.9.10 is Joško Gravner’s new wine. Produced with a selection of individual bunches of Ribolla grapes fully covered in noble rot. This wine is made with the best grapes harvested during three different years, precisely on 23 November 2008, 12 November 2009 and 15 November 2010. Hence the name 8.9.10. While fermenting in amphorae buried underground, it underwent a long maceration along with the skins. After this, it aged in small oak barrels.

Rosso Gravner is a blend of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon grapes. The must is fermented on the skins in open oak vats for 21 days with wild yeasts and no temperature control. Aged in oak barrels for four years. The last vintage in the market is 2004.

Rosso Breg is produced with Pignolo grapes and the fermentation on the skins in wooden vats was done until 2005 and in amphorae buried underground since 2006, with wild yeasts and no temperature control. The wine was aged in oak barrels for five years and in bottle for at least five years. The last vintage in the market is 2004.

Joško Gravner is an amazing wine producer who believes in the traditional way of elaborating wine with long periods of skin maceration and years of ageing in oak and bottle before releasing the wines to the market. His is a truly special philosophy and his wines are highly appreciated and sough after.

We will talk soon to Joško about his wines and winemaking philosophy.

You can watch the following videos of Joško Gravner here:

The Man: Amphora

The Cellar

The Land

Photos © by Azienda Agricola Gravner

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MicroBio Wines, the expression of Verdejo in Segovia

Aitor Trabado

8 May, 2017

MicroBio Wines, the expression of Verdejo in Segovia

Usually all we knew about the Spanish varietal Verdejo is that it was used to produce dry white wines in Rueda under the traditional style of the region and some more wines in the nearby province of Segovia, where wineries such as Belondrade and Lurton and especially Ossian are making great wines with this variety. It is precisely this last winery where our today’s hero sharpened his teeth: Ismael Gozalo, who decided to go on his own in the same province of Segovia with his project MicroBio Wines.

In this winery located in the small village of Nieva is where Ismael has made of the Verdejo something completely different from what we are accustomed to. Especially since he decided to make different wines, wines as stated on his website, which he has personally written texts and descriptions, some of the wines are “difficult and not for a beginner starting drinking wine, they are for those of us who like wine and want new experiences!”. What else do we want at OrangeWines.es other than different wines? Supermarkets are already full of plain style wines. The grace for wine lovers, I think, is in wines like these of Ismael’s.

Ismael has two lines of wines: MicroBio Wines and Ismael Gozalo. In both lines he mainly works with the Verdejo. In the first line he produces eight white wines, two Orange wines and a Pet Nat. And it is not only about the diversity but also about the processes used, which could well be called extreme: Vineyards certified in organic agriculture located up to 920 meters in height, manual works in the field and no use of chemicals, and then in the cellar terracotta or clay vessels, big casks and barrels, cold fermentations around 11-13 degrees on the lees that last for months, no battonage, no pumping, no corrections or filtering or sulphurs… He does everything that serves to give his wines a strong character and personality. And the quantity of each wine is limited; almost none reaches 1,000 bottles a year and in many cases less than 500 bottles.

Ismael uses a traditional 500-liter stainless steel vertical press. After a light pressing, the must goes to different containers depending on the wine in which it is to be converted. Fragil ferments in 16 liter glass containers; Ilegal, for example, spends nearly a year in barrels in their 4th or 5th year of use. Issé remains in clay vases for almost a year and then it ages the same time period in a stainless steel tank before bottling. La Mar Salada ferments and makes its ageing in an old fudre of 1,050 liters. Sin Rumbo is a white wine fermented in barrel, Nieva York is a Pet Nat, Correcaminos is an agile and light wine, and finally Rack, perhaps his most radical wine, whose production seeks “the elasticity of the varietal to find out its most extreme part in the sense of working the musts and fermentations with a high turbidity, looking for a reduction. Therefore, a self-protected wine.”

In the Ismael Gozalo line there are four more white wines: La Banda del Argílico, made with grapes coming from two plots in Nieva, El Pirata, a joint-venture with Riojan winemaker Benjamín Romeo using Rioja native grapes Viura, Malvasia and Garnacha Blanca from vineyards located in San Vicente de la Sonsierra (La Rioja) and with local Verdejo from Nieva. Sin Nombre is another single varietal Verdejo with nearly two years of ageing, both in cask at first and stainless steel tank afterwards. Finally, behind the name of Rs-P.bl.c. Verdejo we find a wine whose grapes come from a plot rated Grand Cru in the El Carril vineyard. Fermentation and aging is in Burgundian barrels of 228 liters in which it remains for a period of 10/12 months.

This is all about white wines, which as we see, is not just a small bunch.

Ismael also makes two Orange wines; KM 0 Origen and Tentados. The first one is fermented in clay vases. After two months of fermentation, the pasta is pressed and the wine is passed to barrels for ageing almost a year. After the first period in barrel, it is left ten more months in tanks for its fining. These wines have a high tanicity due to the contact of the must with the skins and scrape for a long time. The second wine, Tentados, is fermented in clay jars where it undergoes a carbonic maceration of about five weeks. Subsequently, the must stays in contact with the skins for six months.

MicroBio Wines also features two Rosé wines made with Tempranillo and seven red wines made with Tempranillo, Merlot, Rufete, Mencía and Syrah. As we see, a great collection of wines that deserve more time to talk about them and we will do so in another time, because you have to give them the respect they deserve. For the moment, we will focus on the white and orange wines besides talking to Ismael about his passion for Verdejo and his winemaking philosophy in Segovia.

Photos (c) MicroBio Wines

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What are the Orange Wines?

Aitor Trabado

1 May, 2017

The Orange Wines have something special that catches you from the first time you have in your hands a glass of a white wine produced in this style. In my case, the first one that stoke me hard knowing what I was tasting was a wine by Andreas Tscheppe, an Austrian winemaker from Styria whose Hirschkäfer 2014 captivated me right from the start. Its appearance is so distinct, not only because the wine can be hazier, but because it presents sometimes different color and density no matter the wine might be filtered or not. Its aromas are different from the usual, much more refined, far from tropical fruits and with hints of bitter orange skin. In the mouth the acidity has vanished and the body is more pronounced and full of tannins. But above, all you cannot stop drinking it.

After this experience it was imperative to conduct a research on the elaboration of this style of white wines.

For hundreds of years, perhaps even millennia (some even say up to 8.000 years ago), in the Caucasian region that we now know as Georgia, white wines have been produced in large clay or terracotta vases buried underground. In these vases, called qvevris, the must extracted from the grapes is macerated in contact with the skins for extended periods of time. This elaboration process makes the wine distinguished by the characteristics listed above. This maceration gives the wine a darker, orange tone, which made them to be known as Orange wines, though some producers prefer to call them Amber Wines.

This method of elaboration expanded from Georgia to other areas, though with the passing of the time it became out of use. Late in the last century a revival of these wines surged in parts of close areas of Italy, Croatia and Slovenia, and later on Austria, France, Greece and Spain, among other countries, started producing these wines. At present we can find a large number of wineries producing Orange wines. Many of them are also characterized by using biodynamic practices in agriculture as well as making their wines in a natural and non-sulfurous way.

An advantage of this method of elaboration is that it adapts perfectly to each area and its native varieties. The winemakers are finding the best way for adaptation, being in many cases single varietal wines, though we can also find blends in which different varieties have gone through different periods of maceration. In Italy we can find Orange wines made in many areas and with international and local varieties. In Friuli-Venezia Giulia they are mainly produced using Ribolla Gialla, Vitovska, Malvasia and Friulano, also with Pinot Grigio but to a lesser extent. In Trentino with Nosiola, in Sicily with Grecanico and Zibibbo, in Abruzzo with the Montepulciano, among other regions of the Italian peninsula.

In neighboring Slovenia and Croatia winemakers mainly use Malvasia Istriana and Rebulla varieties. Orange wines in Austria offer examples made with Chardonnay and Sauvignon. In France we can find the Savagnin, in Greece the Assyrtiko and the Xinomavro and in Georgia the Saperavi and the Rkatsiteli. In Spain we find producers making Orange wines in many areas and also macerating in terracotta amphorae. There are examples in the Sierra de Gredos, Ávila and Segovia, in Galicia, in Alicante or in La Mancha, among other regions. Airén, Albillo Real, Verdejo, Moscatel, Merseguera or Sauvignon varieties are among the most common.

For the elaboration of these wines we find a great variety of methods. Since the aforementioned amphorae to big oak vats that normally come from the Croatian region of Eslavonia. The maceration periods of the must with their skins are also very varied and depend mainly on the variety used, from the four days of some Pinot Grigio in Friuli to the fourteen months of an Airén in Spain. Everything goes when the producers strive to achieve the limits that this method allows them to reach.

This is all I intend to talk about in this blog: about the producers, the varieties, the wines and everything that surrounds them. Step by step, day by day, with a great passion to discover the work and the people behind this interesting method of elaboration, so ancestral and so modern at the same time. I hope you join me in this adventure.

Domaine de Bellivière, premium Chenin wines in the Loire Valley

Aitor Trabado

24 April, 2017

Domaine de Bellivière, premium Chenin wines in the Loire Valley

Originally published in miamigoelvino.com 24/04/2017.

Finding new wines is one thing we like to do. Exploring the world, new wine regions and new grape varieties. We think this is one interesting side of Wineworld. Finding also a variety we haven’t tasted before is rewarding and when with it comes a wine region and a great winery, you hit the jackpot. This happened one year ago, when in a wine tasting we had in front of us a glass of Chenin Blanc, a white wine coming from the Loire Valley in France, where it shows its enormous potential. The wine selected by Jean Marcos for the occasion was Les Rosiers, a wonderful white wine produced by Domaine de Bellivière. It was an incredible wine that surprised us a lot and we found it so well balanced and structured that we chased down another bottle for some time later.

Eric and Christine Nicolas are in charge of this estate located in the town of Bellivière, a small place in the country depending on the village of Lhomme. And yes, they are specialized in producing wines elaborated with the local Chenin Blanc grape. They have a wide portfolio of wines under two different AOC: Coteaux du Loir and Jasnières. Then they have a few wines produced outside any AOC rules that they sell as Vin De Table.

Since the 2008 vintage all their wines are made from organically cultivated grapes (Ecocert Certificate). Also, the experience they have put together allows them to limit their production to the rare years when the quality and purity of botrytis will reveal of their best. Because of this, Domaine de Bellivière is a member of Sapros association whose target is to promote naturally concentrated wines.

At the Domaine all treatments are organic. All the works in the vineyard during the year are done manually. They own 65 parcels distributed in 5 villages for a total of 17 hectares. They have planted the two grape varieties chosen by the Cistercian monks: Chenin and Pineau d’Aunis. The harvest is manual to respect the integrity of the grape and to allow sorting as appropriate or necessary. All their wines are made entirely in barrel, exclusively using indigenous yeasts, fermenting at natural temperature.

We will talk today about the wines they produce with the Chenin Blanc.We have already said that Domaine de Bellivière is all about Chenin. They elaborate 10 wines with this variety plus a sparkling wine. All the Jasnières and Coteaux du Loir wines are Chenin Blanc 100%.

Every year the range of wines varies depending on the natural conditions. When the botrytis develops well the style of the wines goes from dry to noble-rotted sweet wine. Only in very good years they produce sweet wines.

Under AOC Jasnières they produce 6 wines:

Premices is made with young vines, recently converted to organic and it goes 10 months of ageing in oak).

Les Rosiers is a wine assembled from a selection of young vines. Depending on the year it goes form sec to demi-sec. 12 months of ageing in oak.

Calligramme is made with vines over 50 years. Depending on the year it goes form sec to demi-sec. It ages in oak barrels for 18 months.

Franc de Pied is made from ungrafted vines. 18 months of ageing in oak.

Discours de Tuf (mellow wine, produced only in 1997 and 1999) and Elixir de Tuf (very sweet, produced only in 1997, 2004 and 2005) are made in favorable years only. Noble rot (botrytis). Selective grape picking.

Under AOC Coteaux Du Loir they produce 4 white wines:

L’Effraie is a wine produced from young vines. Depending on the year it goes form sec to demi-sec. Each plot is vinified separately and then blended to age 12 months in oak.

Haut-Rasné is a wine made with young vines and resulting from the unique vineyard Haut-Rasné, able to capture noble rot (botrytis).

Philosophale Exceptional years (1997, 1998, 1999 and 2010) allow us to obtain this rarer botrytised wine. Selective picking with over 18% alcohol on the oldest parcels of Coteaux du Loir.

Vieilles Vignes Éparses is a wine produced from vines aged over 50 to 80 years. Depending on the year it goes form sec to demi-sec. Each plot is vinified separately and then blended to age over 18 months in oak.

Their special Chenin Blanc is Les P’tits Vélos, a sparkling wine.

Soon we will talk to Eric Nicolas, co-owner and vigneron, about his winemaking philosophy.

Photos © Domaine de Bellivière

Domaine de Bellivière

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Stefano Bensa, macerating white wines with the skins

Aitor Trabado

20 April, 2017

Stefano Bensa, macerating white wines with the skins

We recently talked about some special wines produced by Azienda Agricola La Castellada, an Italian winery located in Oslavia (Gorizia), in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region. We had pending a conversation with Stefano Bensa, one of the owners along his brother Matteo and the house winemaker.

Buongiorno, Stefano, and thank you for your cooperation. We discovered the Orange wines not long ago and after our visit to Primosic we got in touch with the Associazione Produttori Ribolla Di Oslavia, formed by both of you and four other local wineries. How’s your work to promote the Ribolla di Oslavia wine?

The idea of the Oslavia’s group is to promote the Ribolla Gialla wine together, and especially the macerated version of Ribolla Gialla. This is a unique way which was rediscovered in Oslavia in mid 1990s. Together with the group we take place on wine events around Europe and the World and we also organize an event in Oslavia, our village.

You use three different periods of maceration with your white wines: four days, fifteen days and then sixty days. Does this depend on variety? The Ribolla Gialla and the VRH go sixty days. Why this long period?

My concept is to use different vinification way for each variety because I can extract much more personality from each variety. Four days means to do half fermentation with skins and half fermentation without skins. 15 days means to macerate to the end of alcoholic fermentation. 60 days means to complete both alcoholic and malolactic fermentation with skins.

What’s so special here with the RibollaGialla that we don’t find anywhere else?

In Oslavia we plant so vigorous variety just on top of the hills, where the marly soil is very poor and it allow to vines to produce low quantity of ripe bunches. This is very important especially when we like to use macerations.

What’s your preferred way of working the Ribolla in the cellar?

At first we work very hard in the vineyards to obtain a low yield, to expose bunches under the sun to become more sunburned. So we pick up a nice golden color Ribolla Gialla. With long skin contact process we extract everything is present in the berries: the color of the skins, phenols from the skins and all richness of the must.

With the Ribolla Gialla, when do you decide it is time to stop the maceration?

When the wine completes also the malolactic fermentation with skins. Usually to complete this process the wine need at last from 45 to 60 days.

Do you try to push it to its limits in terms of the period of the must in contact with the skins?

No never. It no makes sense. The stronger extraction we have during first 15 days, during the alcoholic fermentation, with higher temperatures.

How do you want your Ribolla to be?

As 2006 and 2007 vintage are now.

Would the Friulano respond well to more than 4 days, or 15 in the case of the Pinot Grigio?

I’m satisfied with this way and I don’t find a reason to change. Especially Friulano with just 4 days long maceration preserve much more them aromas.

How do you determine the wine is ready after maceration?

After this process wines need also a long aging process. Wines become ready when all tannins which were extracted with maceration became softer and also some raw and bitter flavors change into sweeter flavors.

You produce two red wines, both based on the Merlot variety. You use barrels for one year and big casks for two years. What does each container give to the wine?

We produce just one red per year, usually is the Rosso della Castellada (85% Merlot, 15% Cabernet Sauvignon) and sometimes during more rainy vintages we produce just Merlot, because the Cabernet Sauvignon has difficulties to became ripe. Two years in old barriques and then other two years in larger casks. I prefer to use barriques during first the two years because at that time the wine age with more sediments and wine need more micro oxygenation process. Than with less sediment I prefer to use larger casks because they give less micro oxygenation process.

What’s so special in this area for producing these Merlot wines?

It’s a variety which guarantees us always a good quality and in Oslavia Merlot became with different characteristics than usual.

How do you reflect the terroir in your Merlot?

The terroir allows the Merlot to be much more aggressive and not so maybe elegant how a lot of people can aspect.

What’s your winemaking philosophy?

The winemaking philosophy is based on to produce a wine in much more natural way that’s possible. To do so today, in last 20 years we experimented really a lot and we learned to produce wine without selected yeasts, without filtrations or clarifications. We just use a little of sulfites.

Which variety you like to work more with?

I like all the varieties I work with. Every harvest is exciting to try again to do the best with all varieties.

And which of your wines give you more gratification?

Maybe the Ribolla Gialla because is the more difficult variety to manage.

What kind of wines do you like to dink when you are not working?

It depends about my mood or what I’m eating. Sometimes I’m much more disposable for a stronger wine, sometimes for a more elegant wine.

Today is Sunday and now I’m attracted by a Ribolla Gialla!

Grazie mille, Stefano!!

Photos © La Castellada

La Castellada

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Alessandro Dal Zovo, winemaker at Tenuta di Angoris

Aitor Trabado

13 April, 2017

Alessandro Dal Zovo, winemaker at Tenuta di Angoris

Originally published in miamigoelvino.com 13/04/2017.

We recently talked about Tenuta Di Angoris, a winery located in the northeast corner of Italy, near the border with Slovenia. We will talk today with Alessandro Dal Zovo, winemaker of this estate of the 17th century-founded.

Buongiorno, Alessandro, and thank you for your cooperation. I’ve tasted some of your wines, and I think they are very good. I find your Schioppettino really interesting, after tasting the 2012 and 2013 vintages.

How is it working within the same company according to the rules of three different DOC?

Buongiorno Aitor, and thank you for this great opportunity. The three different DOC can coexist within the same company by careful vineyard management and a careful separation of the grapes at harvest.

All Villa Locatelli wines are DOC Isonzo. These wines are easy to drink. How are the vineyards in this area?

The wines of Villa Locatelli line are fresh cut and fruity, drink together and cheer. The vineyards are trained in Guyot and double Guyot to produce a good quantity of grapes and keep low alcohol content that the wine will have.

All Angoris wines are DOC Friuli Colli Orientali except Collio, Pinot Grigio and Cabernet Sauvignon which are DOC Collio. Which is the difference between both areas?

There is a great deal of difference between the two areas in regards of the type of soil. In both we face the classic Ponca (flysh) cost marl and sandstone stratified in previous millennia. There is instead difference from a climatic point of view because the cru where the company has vineyards, namely Rocca Bernarda, enjoys the influence of warm currents of the sea being more Southwest than the rest of the Eastern hills of Friuli. The area has more hours of warm throughout the year and is suited for white grapes such as Tocai Friulano, Ribolla Gialla and Chardonnay, and red grapes as Schioppettino, the Pignolo and Refosco Dal Peduncolo Rosso.

What is your approach to work with these two different production lines, Villa Locatelli and Angoris?

First of all I try to give the wines IDENTITY: in each wine we must recognize both the variety and the territory. Surely we dedicate more efforts to the Angoris wines and Reserves Giulio Locatelli as are our calling cards and high image quality.

There is a difference between local varieties and international ones in terms of adaptation to the ground?

More than for the adaptation to the ground there is difference in regards to the climate. In hard vintages as when you stayed here in the year 2014, one of the most rainy years of the last century in Friuli, the native varieties were able to have a toughness and greater consistency, the result of a probably genetic adaptation of plants to climatic difficulties.

In this area, Ponca land is very special. What do they give the wines?

The Ponca form the structure, minerality and more concentration. On Ponca land plants have lower water availability and therefore everything is more focused and structured.

In the Angoris line you have produced a Chardonnay and Traminer wines no longer in production. What happened to those wines?

Chardonnay is still produced but has become part of the Reserve Giulio Locatelli wines (founder of modern Tenuta Angoris). Previously everything was vinified in stainless steel and now 80% of the wine aged in stainless steel and 20% aged in oak barrels of 500 liters where even they do the malolactic fermentation. In the first year in which it was produced, the 2013, the wine achieved its first Tre Bicchieri of Gambero Rosso (a prestigious Italian wine trophy). Traminer is no longer produced because the vineyard was very old and no economically sustainable.

Three of your wines, Pignolo (900 bottles), Ravòst-Merlot (3,000 bottles) and Collio Bianco (3,000 bottles) were classified as Reserve Giulio Locatelli. Their production is very low. What these wines must be so special?

In these wines, as well as for Chardonnay Spiùle, there is a lot of work in the vineyard and in the year that delivered during the harvest. Often the final wine is the composition of several wines made from grape harvested in different times in order to make a big selection of grapes and achieve a perfect balance between acidity and structure.

Why the local Pignolo grape is so special?

Pignolo had almost disappeared from the Friulian wine and was recovered by the Abbey of Rosazzo in the 1980s. It’s a difficult vine from the viticultural and winemaking point of view. The plant produces very slender and thin branches that break easily in the spring, putting at risk the production of successive vintages. Grapes and then wine are therefore very rich in tannins and it needs a long aging period in wood. Our Pignolo is aged in casks or barrels for five years. I think it’s one of the few great red wines from Friuli for long aging.

Which varieties do you prefer to work?

My favorite variety is undoubtedly the Chardonnay. It’s a faithful vine, I will never betray it even a bit, like the woman of your life. It’s very versatile and it can make a great sparkling wine and is a great white wine for aging. Among the native grapes Tocai Friulano is my favorite along with the Schioppettino and Pignolo.

You have worked with famous winemakers Riccardo Cotarella and Denis Dubourdieu. What did you get from them?

Both have been key to my personal and professional growth. Riccardo Cotarella is a person with great charisma, extremely prepared both technically and commercially and is a great communicator. Denis Dubourdieu, who unfortunately died last year, was a professor, a luminary, a winemaker who dug into the wine.

Using Guyot and Sylvoz as your training methods. Do you favor any of them?

If I want to produce a good quantity of grapes I favor the Sylvoz, if I want to obtain a little more structure I use Guyot. Each choice in the vineyard is always made with the final enological objective.

All your wines except the Collio Bianco are single varietals. Do you have plans for doing more blend wines? A Red blend maybe?

For the moment we do not have a red wine blend in the project.

You have worked in Angoris and Cormons area for almost 25 years. Never thought of going somewhere else?

I must be sincere? No. I feel like a vine planted here for 25 years that now starts to produce its best grapes.

What is your winemaking philosophy?

Very simple: respect for the grapes and for the territory and for the consumer.

Which wines do you drink when you are not working?

When I do not work the wines I like to drink are Franciacorta, I love the Riesling, I very much like the Styrian Sauvignon and Pinot Noir.

Thank you very much, Alessandro!

Thank you very much!!! Aitor

Photos © by Tenuta Di Angoris

Tenuta Di Angoris

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Giovanni Neri, perfection making Brunello

Aitor Trabado

6 April, 2017

Giovanni Neri, perfection making Brunello

Originally published in miamigoelvino.com 06/04/2017.

Recently we talked about Brunello di Montalcino and one of our favorite wineries, Azienda Agricola Casanova di Neri, a family–run winery located in the outskirts of Montalcino. Founded in 1971 by Giovanni Neri, nowadays they own 63 hectares of vineyards. Today we will talk to Giovanni Neri, the grandson of the founder, who is the winemaker of the house.

Buongiorno, Giovanni, and grazie mille for your collaboration. We are diehard fans of Brunello wines and yours come always on top. You produce three different Brunello wines: The Brunello Di Montalcino (45 months in Slavonian oak barrels), the Brunello Di Montalcino Tenuta Nuova (27-36 months in oak) and the Brunello Di Montalcino Cerretalto (a bit over 2 years in oak). All come from different vineyards. What do you look for to offer with each wine?

More than wood we rather speak about the single vineyards. Montalcino is a small town but a very big and heterogeneous territory. We try to give three different expression of the same grape, Sangiovese. We work in the same way for all the grapes but at the end each glass shows a different personality.

How’s the process for each one? How are they elaborated?

We harvest all our grapes by hand. Usually we started from the Tenuta Nuova in the South part of Montalcino. Then in the first week of October we pick the White Label and in the second week of October we harvest the Cerretalto vineyard. Each grape is selected by hand to have only the best clusters in the tanks. The fermentation takes place in open conical stainless steel vats with controlled temperature. Usually the maceration for the Brunello grapes is between 20 and 35 days. Then the Brunello white label goes to the Slavonian oak, the Tenuta Nuova and Cerretalto to the Tonneaux.

Tenuta Nouva was selected as Wine of the Year in 2006 by the Wine Spectator magazine. Then James Suckling gave 99 points and Robert Parker gave 100 points to the Tenuta Nouva 2010. What this vintage had to be so special?

The 2010 vintage is considered one of the best vintages of the last 20 years. In 2010 we had a cool and fresh summer, so the growth of the grapes was very slow and balanced. The 2010 Tenuta is really young right now, it’s a perfect vintage for put in your cellar and wait few years.

You own seven different vineyards: Fiesole, Poderuccio, Podernuovo, Le Cetine, Pietradonice, Cerretalto and Spereta, and you have Sangiovese planted in all of them. Which of them offers the best grapes for the Brunello?

It’s not easy to give only one answer. It depends in the season: in the fresh summer the vineyards located on the South give us very balanced grapes. In the hot and dry season we have a better performance in the vineyard on the Northeast. But every year is different and is not easy to have specific rules.

What do you look for in the Sangiovese and the soil of each vineyard to translate into the wine?

The white label is our most fine wine. It’s a very classic Brunello, no so big, typical from the East part of Montalcino. Usually it’s our most approachable Brunello. The Tenuta Nuova is a different style of Sangiovese. The soil is very rich of stones, in the nose is more balsamic than the white label. In the mouth it’s powerful but at the same time elegant and good for cellar aging. The Cerretalto is a completely different wine. It’s sourced from an amphitheater on the Asso creek in the East side of Montalcino. The soil in very rich in iron. In this single vineyard the grapes of Sangiovese are really small.

How the character of the variety is shown?

The Sangiovese grapes are really sensitive to different soil and microclimate. You can put the same clone in another soil and you can have totally different grapes and wines. I think this is one of the features that makes Montalcino so unique

The wine stays in oak from 24 to up to 45 months, depending on the label and the vintage. How do you balance the ageing process to keep intact the character of the Sangiovese?

We believe that wood should only accompany the wine in the long years of the cellar aging. When you smell one of the our wines we don’t like that you feel the oak. You have to understand the nose of the grapes. When we have a big vintage we use more new oak , when the vintage is lighter we use less percentage of new oak.

You did produce a Brunello di Montalcino Selezione 2005. Is this a one-year wine or do you produce it in special vintages?

The Brunello Selezio (or Figuranti) it’s a special label for some market , in the last few years we produced in all vintages.

We have a bottle of the Tenuta Nouva 2008. How long can we cellar it and still enjoy it at its best?

The 2008 is one of the undervalued vintage of the last years. It’s a tipycal vintage for Montalcino, very balanced and elegant. I think the Tenuta Nuova 2008 will be at it best in two or three years.

What’s your winemaking philosophy?

we believe that each of our vineyard is unique. Starting from this we try to obtain every single character that can increase this difference. I think that the 80% of the work is in the vineyard. We have to understand what each vineyards needs to produce the best grapes. Than in the cellar we have only to maintain the result of the vineyards.

Which kind of wine you do like to drink when you are not working?

I’m a big fan of Nebbiolo and pinot noir. And I also really love the champagne and the white wines from the Wachau

Grazie mille, Giovanni!!

Casanova di Neri

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Azienda Agricola Skerk, the skin-macerated Malvasia in Carso-Kras

Aitor Trabado

3 April, 2017

Azienda Agricola Skerk, the skin-macerated Malvasia in Carso-Kras

In past articles we have been talking and interviewing producers of our beloved Orange wines from Oslavia, a town located in the heart of Gorizia, the Friuli Venezia Giulia region. We talked to Boris Primosic from Primosic, Josko Gravner and Stefano Bensa from La Castellada. Today we are moving a little further down to the Southeast, where the Carso-Kras DOC is located. Here we will find Sandi Skerk, owner and winemaker of Azienda Agricola Skerk.

Sandi is a winegrower, the soul behind a wine as he likes to say. It is a way of life where he puts all his passion about making wine. From the moment he decides the grape variety he wants to grow until he sees the final product in a bottle. In the vineyard he likes low yielding and a high-density cultivation. Sandi selects the most suitable pruning techniques and canopy management so this way he leaves the plant exposed to the sun. The treatment of the vines is reduced to a minimum, no use of chemical fertilizers at all.

When the time for harvest comes, grapes are picked up by hand and the must macerates in contact with their skins. No added yeasts and enzymes and no fining down and filtering. The goal is to produce a wine true to the character of the grapes and the terroir.

The area is known as the Karst. The soil is red and stony and it is located close to the Adriatic Sea and the Pre-Julian Alps, creating a microclimate with marked temperature fluctuations, marine breezes and the effect of the strong Bora winds that favor so much the growth of the local grape varieties.

Azienda Agricola Skerk is a small winery, owning 7 hectares of vineyards and producing around 20,000 bottles per year of four wines, two single varietal whites, one white blend and one red.

Here we find the Malvasia, the Vitovska and the Sauvignon, wonderful white varieties, and the Terrano, an intense red full-bodied wine rich in iron and minerals.

The two single varietal white wines are:

The Vitovska (2014) comes from a vineyard with a density of 8000 plants/ha and a yielding of 35-40 ql/ha. After destemming, the maceration with the skins takes 10 days in oak casks. After this, the wine stays over its lees for 12 months, then it ages 12 more months in big oak vats and in bottle for six months.

The Malvasia (2014) comes from a vineyard with a density of 8000 plants/ha and a yielding of 35-40 ql/ha. The cellar work is the same as for the Vitovska; maceration with the skins for 10 days in oak casks, 12 months over its lees, 12 more months in big oak vats and six months of aging in bottle.

Ograde (2014) is the white blend, their top tier wine. The name comes for the word used to designate a small plot enclosed by a stone wall for keeping outside animals such sheep or goats. It is also the name of the land where the cellar is located.

Ograde is a blend of Vitovska, Malvasia, Sauvignon and Pinot Grigio. 10 days of maceration in oak vats, 12 months over its lees, 12 more months in big oak vats and six months of aging in bottle. Truly a champion in the region.

The red wine is the Terrano (2014), produced using the local Refosco variety. The vineyard has a density of 8000 plants/ha and a yielding of 35-40 ql/ha. The must macerates for 10 days with the skins in oak vats, then 12 months in oak barrels. The same amount of time stays in 2,500-liter botti and then 4-6 months in the bottle before being released.

All wines are Carso-Kras DOC

Soon we will talk to Sandi about his winemaking philosophy and his wines.

Azienda Agricola Skerk

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Aron Weinkauf, winemaker of Spottswoode Estate Vineyard & Winery

Aitor Trabado

30 March, 2017

Aron Weinkauf, winemaker of Spottswoode Estate Vineyard & Winery

Originally published in miamigoelvino.com 30/03/2017.

Recently we run a feature about Napa Valley’s Spottswoode Estate Vineyard & Winery. A family-run winery located in St. Helena, California. We had pending a conversation with its winemaker Aron Weinkauf.

Good morning Aron, and thank you for your cooperation. You are the chief winemaker of the house since 2011. What’s so special about the Spottswoode’s vineyards to produce such splendid grapes?

It’s an exceptional vineyard at the confluence of a seasonal creek, which has left dynamic, diverse soil at the start of the bench with good drainage.

What kind of weather and soil do you have here?

We are in one of the warmer sites of the Napa Valley, so our trellis, canopy management, organic farming for over 50 years, and other winegrowing decisions are very important to our winery and wine style.

Estate Cabernet Sauvignon and Lyndenhurst Cabernet Sauvignon are your trademark wines. How do you manage to express both the terroir and the grape into them?

If one doesn’t allow the grapes to overripen, I think the grapes express themselves.

The Estate Cabernet Sauvignon is an iconic wine. How do you elaborate it? How do you select the grapes for it? How this variety shows its characteristics and personality in your wines?

We farm for a vineyard that is balanced and dynamic, in which we want each block to express itself. We select grapes for a wine of great balance and density and then try not to over extract, over oxidize, or over oak the Cabernet Sauvignon, so that the fruit shows powerfully, fresh, and expressive.

What’s your style of wine and how do you make your Cabernets to show it?

Balanced, not overripe, layered, a wine that will evolve, structured, aromatic and textured.

Then you produce a white wine: the Spottswoode Sauvignon Blanc, a young wine with no aging.

Yes, this is correct. This said, it is equal in production to our Cabernet Sauvignon, and within the world of Sauvignon Blanc, we consider it also iconic.

Please tell us about the Field Book wines.

These are wines we love and want to explore, grown by growers with passion in areas where we are trying something new and unique.

Being Spaniard as I am, it caught my attention that you elaborate a wine with the Spanish Albariño variety. How is this wine and how the grape adapts here?

We think the wine is great. Grown near Forestville, California, due to the moderate temperatures, cool nights, and growing practices, the wine has preserved acidity, texture, and vibrant Albariño aromatics. We use very little oak.

Do you plan on keep on producing it?

Yes, we plan to continue producing it. It is a very young vineyard that we are helping to develop and advising on its farming.

Have you tasted Albariño from Rías Baixas? How do both wines compare?

I also lived in Spain and loved/love wines from the Rías Baixas! We do a number of comparative tastings here at Spottswoode, and find that we do very well with the variety.

Do you plan to use other non-common varieties in the USA?

When the other components of grower, unique projects, and varietal coincide, we will certainly consider it.

Some years ago, before your time here, the vineyards suffered the attack of the Phylloxera. How did they manage to avoid losing the vineyard?

They avoided this by gradual replanting to and with modern rootstock.

Nowadays Spottswoode is an organic and biodynamic farm. Can you explain how do you work in this way?

Biodynamics helps advise the wisdom and rhythms by which we work. Organics is the way we’ve been farming since 1985. The rules guide the products that we use, and structure our goals of farming for the health of our land, homes, and community. And of course, both contribute to the energy and strength of the wine.

What’s your winemaking philosophy?

Wines are made in the vineyard. All qualitative decisions start there, and then we make the wine as respectful to the natural process as possible. It is important to me to allow the wines to show true to the time and place at which they were grown.

What kind of wines do you like to drink when you are not working?

I am interested in all kind of wines, especially Barolo, Sancerre, Spain, and archetypical wines

Thank you very much, Aron!!

Spottswoode Estate Vineyard & Winery

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