Gravner: a Divine winery visit in Collio, Friuli, Italy

A pond at the oldest vineyard.

Amber, not orange

Standing here, at the front yard of Gravner winery, in the village of Oslavia, I’ve arrived at the heart of modern orange wine. Gravner’s main building is in Italy, but so close to the Slovenian border that we can see over to the other side: “those trees over there are in Slovenia!” This border region of Italy’s Collio and Slovenia’s Brda is culturally very united. The border has been moved around, and the separation between Collio and Brda (on the Slovenian side) is practically artificial, hence the locals call it Collio-Brda.  Also, this building is the only building in the village of Oslavia that survived the First World War intact – at the time it served as a hospital for the wounded. Today, its peaceful cellar protects numerous gigantic, hand-made clay vessels called amphoras (or kvevris in Georgian) that have been imported from Georgia. They are now buried in the ground, where in their wombs they mature some of world’s most spectacular wines made using prolonged skin contact. I had the privilege to spend an afternoon with Mateja Gravner contemplating the delicate relationship between vineyard care and nature’s balance, discussing Gravner’s ecologically responsible and aware wine philosophy, and tasting their divine wines.

Josko Gravner, Mateja’s father, is the iconic master of wines produced with prolonged skin contact. His uncompromising and bold choices of both wine-making materials and methods have laid the foundations for orange wine culture in the area. Gravner’s wine production philosophy prioritizes the character of the original grape. Protecting nature is important to Gravner, and it is one way of ensuring that the varietal character becomes fully communicated in the final product. The less the wine is disturbed with outside noise (e.g. chemicals in the vineyard, fining, etc) along the way, the more “alive”, nuanced and clearly defined its character is in the end. On that note, Gravners do not use the term “orange wine”, although Mateja agrees that it is useful for marketing purposes as customers are more and more familiar with that term. Instead, Mateja prefers the term “amber wine” because “amber is alive, but orange is already gone”. Orange colour is monotonous, artificial and dead, she explains, while amber is nuanced and alive. Hence, “amber wine”.

Amphoras / kvevris above ground.

At the vineyard

Mateja takes us to their oldest vineyard planted with 7 hectares of white Ribolla (this variety has a thousand year history in this area) and 1,5 hectares of red and unpredictably grape yielding Pignolo (a local variety as well that almost faced extinction, but made it back). And that is it. Gravner has stopped growing international varieties. Although this vineyard hosts only two varieties of grapes, many other plants and species abound. Promoting biodiversity and protecting the surrounding ecosystem from human impact caused by agriculture are of primary concern for Gravner. As planting the vineyard causes the vines to be overrepresented in that particular system, Gravners have decided to plant fruit, olive and other trees in the vineyard, and even build artificial ponds to support the birds and insects. In this area, there has been a loss of bird species in the past decades. However, thanks to ecologically more aware agriculture and these kinds of interventions, the bird populations have started to flourish again. Wine is nature’s product, and Gravner approaches it as a part of the ecosystem. The more ecologically balanced the vineyards are, the more balanced the grapes, and finally, the resulting wine. And along the same lines, the less the wine is disturbed at any point of its production, the more the final product reflects the grapes of origin. All this crystallizes to outstanding quality in the glass.

Although Gravner works with practically biodynamic (and organic) production methods, they haven’t applied for any certifications. Why? Because they want to work only according to the principles they themselves believe are most fruitful for reaching best quality, on the contrary to working according to certificate requirements that would at some instances require compromising from their own standards. The accumulation of copper and sulphur compounds in the soil is currently a common problem in organic vineyards because they are sprayed with these repetitively to prevent fungal disease. Gravner has found a solution in propolis and algae. With the help of these natural fungicides they have been able to reduce the usage of copper and sulphur up to 40%. “Everything that helps lessen the human impact on the soil must be at least tried”, says Mateja.

“How we produce is how we live”

Listening to Mateja, I begin to understand that for Gravner wine is a living organism that develops and grows at its own pace. It needs to be listened to, its process needs to be followed, not pushed. Mateja often compares wine with growing children:  like a child, wine slowly becomes itself, with proper guidance and plenty of time. At Gravner this time is approximately seven years – this is the time a wine needs to mature after prolonged skin contact, and this is the time a child needs to grow before she is ready for school. And like a proper parent, Gravner makes uncompromising choices to reach a wine that reflects the true character of the original grapes: only the healthiest and optimally ripe grapes are picked, the rest are discarded. And only Georgian, hand-made clay vessels will do. Nothing less, no matter how much effort it may require to get the cellar filled with them.

Mateja Gravner and the spectacular Rosso Breg 2004 made with Pignolo.

Before the amphoras, Gravner produced their wines in a manner still very typical to Collio: international varieties filled the vineyards and the cellar was full of stainless steel and modern technology. No doubt, this set produced wines of the highest quality with crisp acidity and fruity freshness – wines with international appeal. However, Josko Gravner didn’t taste the original varietal taste of the grapes in the end product. Further, he noticed that international wines as well as the wines of his own area seemed to lose personality and approach a uniform style. This bothered him.

A turning point was reached in 1996. This was a very poor vintage. Gravner lost a devastating 92% of Ribolla grapes. Josko decided to experiment with the remaining 8% to finally determine what interventions would allow or hinder the Ribolla varietal taste of the fresh grapes to shine through in the wine. He attempted e.g. making Ribolla wine with or without cultured yeasts; with or without prolonged skin contact; with or without sulphites. The final results? Unsurprisingly, Ribolla’s character was the clearest with minimal interventions. As a conclusion, Josko Gravner opted for amphoras as they, without any other technology but a minimal amount of sulphites, allowed for prolonged skin contact and retained the fresh aromas of the wine.  Mateja says: “Amphoras are nothing exotic – they just bring together everything that is required to achieve a high quality wine through extended skin contact without any extra technology.” (An article about Kvevri/Amphora as a wine making technology is available here.)

Gravner's cellar is full of amphoras buried in the ground.

Determined to produce characterful wines, in 1997 Josko Gravner sold his shiny stainless steel tanks and started his challenging journey towards creating a cellar full of Georgian amphoras. Easier said than done. At the time Georgia was still politically unstable. To travel there was a questionable undertaking as such, but to get the actual amphoras to end up in Collio, a herculean task. The first batch of amphoras arrived in no earlier than year 2000. There were eleven amphoras, out of which nine were broken. Naturally, the conclusion was to order more Georgian amphoras! The vintage of 2001 was the first when Gravner produced some wine made in amphoras. Today, all their wine is produced in amphoras, including the red Pignolo. After pressing, Pignolo moves into oak barrels to mature, but Ribolla stays in skin contact for six months in amphoras before racking, and after continues to mature in amphoras until the following autumn. After this period also Ribolla is matured in large Slavonian oak vessels for six years.  

Tasting wines together with Mateja Gravner crystallized the spirit of this uncompromising winemaking philosophy into concrete reality. These wines were outstanding throughout. Each of them would deserve a detailed, in-depth review. Attempting to write a short version would not do them justice. Instead, I will warmly recommend these wines for wine enthusiasts and anyone fascinated by unique wines of outstanding quality. What I took home from this visit (alongside with a couple of lovely bottles to my collection) was the comprehension that a wine is born, when its process is allowed to take place in the right conditions without extra manipulation. My visit at Gravner helped me to trust the process instead of pushing the river – and this applies equally well to life as well as wine making in kvevris/amphoras.

Amber wine.

Coordinates

Azienda Agricola Gravner Francesco
Localita Lenzuolo Bianco 9
Oslavia 34170 Gorizia

tel. 0481 30882

info@gravner.it
gravner.it

 

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Dear friends of wine and Divine Wine. This last article has taken me an unpardonably long time to write. Another project outside wine has become very time intensive in my life. So, dear friends, it is time to say good-bye, and thank you all for reading Divine Wine blog. I wish you all the best wines now and in the future! Cin cin!  

Orange wine part II – Where it all started

Magnificent kvevris (or amphoras) decorate Gravner's vineyards.

Where it all started 

Some argue that orange wine is just a whim of fashion. However, archeological findings from Caucasus, or modern day Georgia, locate the origin of wine making to this very area. The excavated red clay vessels with wine residues on them support the notion of orange wine being the first wine ever made, which took place around 6000 B.C. Furthermore today, the very same type of thick walled, cone shaped, red clay vessels, kvevris (or qvevris), are used for fermenting and storing orange wine in Georgia as they were roughly 8000 years ago. Kvevris surely make oak and stainless steel look like whims of fashion!

In addition to their constant success in Georgia, kvevris have increasingly made their way to Europe since 1990’s. Currently, the heartland of kvevri fermented and maturated wine is in North-East Italy, in Collio-Brda area. This region is situated at the border of Italy’s Friuli and Slovenia. Orange wine is also produced in various vessels (plastic, oak, steinless steel) at numerous corners of the world, including Croatia (the neighbour of Italy and Slovenia), as well as other parts of Italy, Sicily, France, Austria, California and Australia. Kvevris, however, are hardly seen outside Georgia and Italian/Slovenian Collio-Brda area.

What is a kvevri?

Kvevri is a cone shaped red clay vessel lined with beeswax. They vary in size from small (100 liters) to enormous (10 000 liters), and are sometimes also called (slightly inaccurately) amphoras. However, kvevris differ from amphoras in that they do not have handles, and are shaped differently. In fact, at a quick glance kvevris appear really impractical: you can’t carry them and they will fall on their side due to their sharp shape when placed on a surface. Why on earth were they made this way 8000 years ago, and still are?

Kvevris (or amforas) buried in the ground at Gravner.

Kvevri is buried in the ground

Kvevri’s odd shape is geniously functional considering the winemaking circumstances thousands of years ago. There was no technology for temperature control or chemicals available for sanitation (not to mention understanding of microbes). A kvevri buried in the ground provides the wine with steadily temperature controlled, cool environment. Soil in the ground remains cool and in relatively constant temperature year round compared to air temperature, which might vary in Mediterranean from blazing hot in the summer to minus degrees Celsius in the winter. Temperature variation and high temperatures are detrimental to wine aromas. Hence, kvevris.

Lacking tannin, white wine is especially susceptible to oxidation and infection. This is why ancient white wine was made with prolonged skin contact to extract tannin, a natural antioxidant and preservative, to the wine. Although tannin shields white (or orange) wine from being spoiled, extended skin contact is not without risks. Especially stalks and pips are plentiful in bitter compounds and in abundance result in unpleasant, astringent wine. The solution is kvevri’s shape. In the start of fermentation most of the skins, pips and stalk material is floating on the grape juice. As fermentation continues, more and more of this cap starts to fall on the bottom of the fermentation vessel. The first to fall down are pips and the stalks; the skins follow later. In the cone shaped kvevri, these most bitter components of the grapes become soon covered with grape skins. In addition, kvevri’s conical shape nicely limits the contact area between the fallen solid material and the wine, and on top of that, allows only minimal contact between the wine and the bitterest part of the grape material. Genious!

Natural wine

Orange wines are produced in variety of styles – with more or less prolonged skin contact; aging the wine for months or years; in all kinds of vessels including kvevris, stainless steel, plastic and oak. However, practically all orange wine producers are minimally interventionistic, meaning e.g. that they rarely add commercial yeasts to their wines or use herbicides or pesticides in their vineyards, and often use only very small amounts of sulphites to protect their wines from spoilage. Some of them are certified organic or biodynamic producers. This minimally interventionistic approach is rather ambiguously referred to as “natural wine”-movement, and due to its broad definition, covers a multitude of more and less adventurous wine making philosophies. Getting acquainted with orange wine will inevitably bring you in contact with natural wine and its various quality levels as well. So, let’s enjoy this adventure together!