Ribolla Anfora Gravner
Uve: Ribolla
Sistema di allevamento: Guyot
Produttore: Gravner (Venezia Giulia)
Joško Gravner, an Italian winemaker from Oslavia, on the border between Italy and Slovenia, runs his own winery that owns vineyards on both sides of the border.
Josco was the first in Italy to make wine in amphorae and is still perhaps the only one who does all his wine with this ancient method that he learned in Georgia, the home of wine.
This is not his only quality, if you visit his site and the latest news about him on various portals about wine on web, you will discover with pleasure many other things.
What Gravner desires is to produce wine only from grapes of his territory, an area that he loves and of which he takes care trying to preserve its integrity.
So much love and wisdom, all together, finally gives the deserved result.
Unusual wines, intense, deep, rich, with spectacular aromas and color that condense in the glass the characteristics of the area and vintage.
I received a bottle of Gravner Ribolla as a Christmas gift from my daughter and her husband, who knew very well how much I wanted.
We drank it together, of course, right at the beginning of the Christmas lunch, together with the whole family gathered for the traditional lunch. I insist fiercely that, in addition to culture, tradition and memories, wine is a simple pleasure and so it should be considered. For this reason I prefer suggest and not to impose pairings, indeed I believe that everyone should decide what wine to drink and with what kind of food even when the pairing is not in the usual canons, that are quite often fads.
We tasted this wine at the beginning of lunch, with a rich assortment of caviar, salmon, and rabbit terrine with foie gras. It was a delicious and gorgeous combination that satisfied me a lot.
La Malvasia delle Lipari ed altri vini dell'Azienda Hauner
 |
| Carlo Hauner Junior |
The Hauner farm located on the island of Salina, in the Aeolian Islands was founded in the '70s by Carlo Hauner senior, who moved there and bought a land size of 20 hectares. After cleaning and having restored the ancient terraces, he made this land a vineyard Malvasia, grape already cultivated by local farmers on the island. The wine Hauner is today well known in the most prestigious restaurants worldwide
The farm now is led by Carlo Hauner Junior, son of the founder. It produces two types of Malvasia (natural and raisins), one white wine and two red wines and a unique Grappa di Malvasia delle Lipari. The production is made from the grapes from the vineyards, in the district of Lingua in Salina, and from grapes of other small local winemakers
He arrived for the first time in the Aeolian islands in 1963 as a tourist.
As a young man he was a painter and not yet twenty years old, he exhibited at the Biennale di Venezia. In the years of maturity he gained significant international success as a designer. His passion for winemaking can be seen as the ultimate challenge of an intense life full of interests... So begins the page on the website that tells the story of the Hauner winery.
I met Carlo Hauner hen I was a teenager.
He furnished our apartment in Milan and designed for us a beautiful house in a stunning location on the Lecco branch of Lake Como: a house that seemed to bring the whole Grigna into the house. All furniture were designed and produced by him, very simple and basic furniture of a nice wood ( Hauner himself taught us how to keep it bright with nothing more than raw linseed oil).
A mutual feeling of esteem and friendship bound him to my father who often spoke us of his wonderful workplace on the hills of Brescia that unfortunately I have never seen.
He was an interesting man and very kind with a thousand interests (I still remember how funny he was when dancing the samba ...). Suddenly he fell in love with the island of Salina and soon moved there with the whole family.
He furnished our apartment in Milan and designed for us a beautiful house in a stunning location on the Lecco branch of Lake Como: a house that seemed to bring the whole Grigna into the house. All furniture were designed and produced by him, very simple and basic furniture of a nice wood ( Hauner himself taught us how to keep it bright with nothing more than raw linseed oil).
A mutual feeling of esteem and friendship bound him to my father who often spoke us of his wonderful workplace on the hills of Brescia that unfortunately I have never seen.
He was an interesting man and very kind with a thousand interests (I still remember how funny he was when dancing the samba ...). Suddenly he fell in love with the island of Salina and soon moved there with the whole family.
At home I always try not to ever miss a bottle of Hauner Malvasia, just to make me a cuddle from time to time. I like to drink it fresh, especially before dinner while nibbling a few bits of cheese or a terrine de volaille and other snacks while waiting to sit down at the table, as the ancient Romans who always drank sweet wine as an aperitif.
 |
| da Hauner Winery - Facebook |
Chianti Vepri
 |
| Siro e Clio Cicogni |
The winery is located at Ambra, in the Chianti area of Valdichiana. Its name come from the quaint village of Vepri that borders one side of the property. This country has ancient pre-Roman roots and a special vocation for wine.
It’s conducted by Clio Cicogni who in 2010 bought an old vineyard of 15 hectares, abandoned from several years and immediately decided its conversion to organic farming. The family Cicogni has a tradition in the field of milling wheat for bread (5 generations). Since 1976 developed the sector of cereals and in the past 14 years begun the production of organic feeds, and more recently converted the mill to exclusive organic production. (see website).
From 2011, second year of vintage, it is possible to choose wine aged in oak barrels
I tasted this Chianti just last week, at a nice dinner in the company of friends at the countryside house of a friend , on the slopes of Mount Perone in the island of Elba. I met there Siro Cicogni who had brought some bottles of his wine for this occasion.
At the first sip I found it very pleasant, friendly and round, fragrant and soft enough to my taste. It's a young wine, of course, but with floral aromas, not too strong tannic tones and muffled in a discrete manner by the moderate aging in barriques. A wine that has good attitudes to aging.
Generally I am not really enthusiastic about the wine aging in oak barrels. I think that often this type of treatment is used too much also on wines that do not require it or does not support it with dignity. This is not the case of Chianti Vepri.
A final information that is important to me: the winery ensures that the grapes are grown with respect of ground, of fruits and nature. Even the wine making is very accurate and as much as possible organic. That’s all very good!
It’s conducted by Clio Cicogni who in 2010 bought an old vineyard of 15 hectares, abandoned from several years and immediately decided its conversion to organic farming. The family Cicogni has a tradition in the field of milling wheat for bread (5 generations). Since 1976 developed the sector of cereals and in the past 14 years begun the production of organic feeds, and more recently converted the mill to exclusive organic production. (see website).
From 2011, second year of vintage, it is possible to choose wine aged in oak barrels
I tasted this Chianti just last week, at a nice dinner in the company of friends at the countryside house of a friend , on the slopes of Mount Perone in the island of Elba. I met there Siro Cicogni who had brought some bottles of his wine for this occasion.
At the first sip I found it very pleasant, friendly and round, fragrant and soft enough to my taste. It's a young wine, of course, but with floral aromas, not too strong tannic tones and muffled in a discrete manner by the moderate aging in barriques. A wine that has good attitudes to aging.
Generally I am not really enthusiastic about the wine aging in oak barrels. I think that often this type of treatment is used too much also on wines that do not require it or does not support it with dignity. This is not the case of Chianti Vepri.
A final information that is important to me: the winery ensures that the grapes are grown with respect of ground, of fruits and nature. Even the wine making is very accurate and as much as possible organic. That’s all very good!
Mastroberardino: a family and its wines
The Mastroberardino family for over two centuries deals with wine.
The first evidence of the presence in Irpinia date back to the Land Registry Bourbon, in the middle of the eighteenth century, a time when the family chose the village in the province of Avellino Atripalda their headquarters, where they are still located on the old cellars, and there originated in offspring that their fate inextricably tied to the cult of the wine. Since then I have spent 10 generations that have carried on the business of the family of origin ups and downs: the phylloxera, the first and the second world war that depopulated the countryside and the earthquake that struck so disastrously in the 70 territory.
The first evidence of the presence in Irpinia date back to the Land Registry Bourbon, in the middle of the eighteenth century, a time when the family chose the village in the province of Avellino Atripalda their headquarters, where they are still located on the old cellars, and there originated in offspring that their fate inextricably tied to the cult of the wine. Since then I have spent 10 generations that have carried on the business of the family of origin ups and downs: the phylloxera, the first and the second world war that depopulated the countryside and the earthquake that struck so disastrously in the 70 territory.
"We defended our traditions and our tastes gaining recognition worldwide. Pliny spoke of Fiano and Falanghina in these areas, we fought to preserve the history" was use to tell to those who visited the winery Antonio Mastroberardino, the guru of wines from Campania, who died last January aged 86.
It 'about her though many winemakers have retained the Irpinia Aglianico vines, Taurasi, Fiano and against any Greek fashion, against any approval of taste would say almost ahead of its time, at a time when the Ministry of agriculture pushed to replace old varieties with more productive, Trebbiano and Cabernet.
I tasted it for the first time in 1978 a wine Mastroberardino Taurasi.
It was a red that I did not expect to find in central Italy because of ignorance and inexperience assimilated all the red wines produced in those areas at that time were mostly Apulian wine rosé wines, high alcohol content and not full-bodied. Over time I learned to appreciate even the excellent white wines, Greco, Greco di Tufo and Fiano. The list of course does not end there because the family is large and there are many estates, including a recent (2008) at Apice, a place famed in antiquity as fruit and vegetable market, and the different wines.
From this project came the red wine Villa dei Misteri, made from grapes of Piedirosso (90%), already known at the time of Campania felix decantatato of Horace and Pliny in his Naturalis Historia, and Sciascinoso (10%), red grape of Campania known with the name of Olivella for the berry shape that reminds the olives and that probably coincides with the oleaginea described by Pliny. This vine is present in Campania for so long that they can rightly be termed native. The collaboration with the Superintendent Mastroberardino is continuing successfully. In fact the company is catching up other spaces in the city such as the Garden of the Fugitives where it was now planted a vineyard Aglianico.
(posted february 15. 2014)
I tasted it for the first time in 1978 a wine Mastroberardino Taurasi.
It was a red that I did not expect to find in central Italy because of ignorance and inexperience assimilated all the red wines produced in those areas at that time were mostly Apulian wine rosé wines, high alcohol content and not full-bodied. Over time I learned to appreciate even the excellent white wines, Greco, Greco di Tufo and Fiano. The list of course does not end there because the family is large and there are many estates, including a recent (2008) at Apice, a place famed in antiquity as fruit and vegetable market, and the different wines.
One of the most interesting projects is the project the Villa of the Mysteries, in collaboration with the Archaeological Superintendence of Pompeii, which has entrusted in 1996 to Mastroberardino the task of restoring the viticulture in the ancient city.
Before the eruption of Mount Vesuvius that destroyed, we know from archaeological finds in Pompeii Grapes were grown in the gardens and orchards even within the walls and that there were flourishing vineyards. Botanical studies and the collection of casts of the roots of the vines and the supporting posts have allowed us to understand a lot about local viticulture at the time. View Company Mastroberardino.
Before the eruption of Mount Vesuvius that destroyed, we know from archaeological finds in Pompeii Grapes were grown in the gardens and orchards even within the walls and that there were flourishing vineyards. Botanical studies and the collection of casts of the roots of the vines and the supporting posts have allowed us to understand a lot about local viticulture at the time. View Company Mastroberardino.
From this project came the red wine Villa dei Misteri, made from grapes of Piedirosso (90%), already known at the time of Campania felix decantatato of Horace and Pliny in his Naturalis Historia, and Sciascinoso (10%), red grape of Campania known with the name of Olivella for the berry shape that reminds the olives and that probably coincides with the oleaginea described by Pliny. This vine is present in Campania for so long that they can rightly be termed native. The collaboration with the Superintendent Mastroberardino is continuing successfully. In fact the company is catching up other spaces in the city such as the Garden of the Fugitives where it was now planted a vineyard Aglianico.
No comments:
Post a Comment