Venezia Giulia Rosso IGT 'Rujno' 2008 (750 ml.) Gravner

THE WINE

The 'Rosso Rujno' is the rarest red wine worthy of aging from Gravner. It is a Reserve produced only in exceptional vintages and in extremely limited quantities. It comes from a single old vineyard on the border of Slovenia, and the harvest ends with botrytized grapes. A blend of 95% Merlot and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon. Fermentation takes place with the skins in buried Georgian amphorae with indigenous yeasts without temperature control. Aging in oak barrels for 5 years and in bottle for 11 years. Bottled on a waning moon, without clarification or filtration. The bouquet is rich in aromas such as sour cherry, dried plum, red currant, licorice, and crushed black rock. Hints of lead, fresh tobacco, smoke, charred bay leaf, and old leather. On the palate, it is subtle and medium-bodied, rich, soft, and silky. Perfect with game, red meats, and aged cheese.

THE COMPANY

Absolute protagonist of Italian wine and its recent history, Francesco Gravner, better known as Josko Gravner, is a winemaker whose name is intimately linked to that Collio Goriziano that he himself has helped to make famous worldwide. A journey that begins far away, when as a teenager Josko starts vinifying the grapes from the vineyards planted around his home. The use of steel first, and then of barrique, marks a path that spans much of the 80s and 90s, until the turning point with the introduction of Georgian amphorae in the winery, from which the name of his wines derives. Josko's viticulture has gradually stripped itself of all technicalities, becoming natural to the point of strictness, the result of careful work in the vineyard, where for over twenty years every synthetic product has been banned. The more than thirty hectares of vineyards, most of which are owned, are located in various areas of the municipality of Oslavia, in the province of Gorizia. At an altitude ranging from 150 to 270 meters above sea level, the vines enjoy optimal exposures and grow on typically calcareous and marl soils. In the vineyard, a rigor and method are applied that refer back to the oldest popular beliefs of the area and the most remote local traditions, which over time have proven to be more authentic than anything else. In the winery, long macerations on the skins and very long aging in wood are natural consequences of a path aimed at enhancing not only the grapes but the entire territory itself. This is how unique wines are born, capable of going beyond any definition related to organic or biodynamic. From Ribolla Gialla to “Breg Anfora”, from “Rosso Gravner” to “Rosso Breg”, up to the Reserves, we can choose a single word to define them all: simply infinite wines.