“We’re leaving the best part of the harvest on the ground.”
Josko Gravner heard his father say this so often that he became convinced – many years later – that he should produce a white wine using noble rot – grapes affected by the Botrytis fungus. That is the story behind 8’9’10, a Ribolla Riserva that is the daughter of three exceptional harvests: 23 November 2008, 12 November 2009 and 15 November 2010. There are only 1200 bottles of this wine, which appears to be infinite and to dance in the glass, elegant and powerful like a dancer. An incredibly bright golden yellow, in spite of clarification, it has an intense and complex nose that blends delicate resins, a hint of saffron and dried fruits, along with hints of brackishness. The palate is sweet, very long and structured, with tannic closure. The wine is fermented in amphora, and maceration takes place in contact with the stalks, followed by ageing in small oak barrels. It can be summed up in a single word: immense.