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The Morning Claret

Simon J Woolf + friends on wild and wonderful wines

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  • The Amber Revolution kicks off

    Simon J Woolf    

    Click here to support the production of Amber Revolution on Kickstarter now! I’ll never forget the first time I visited Friuli, in North-East Italy. Due to some truly inspired scheduling by the local consorzio, our group of wine writers and bloggers visited three iconic cellars in Friuli Carso on a beautiful autumn morning. All were outstanding

  • Draga - Ribolla Gialla "Natural Art" 2011

    A new generation in Friuli: Miklus – Ribolla Gialla “Natural Art” 2011

    Simon J Woolf    

    In November 2014, I met five winemakers at a small tasting in San Floriano del Collio. Quietly spoken and rather shy, Mitja Miklus from the Draga estate seemed to blend into the background. But this young chap is smart – he doesn’t need to adopt the bluster of a salesman, his wines do the talking quite well by themselves.

  • Damijan Podversic at Prowein, March 2017

    Damijan Podversic – realising a dream

    Simon J Woolf    

    Damijan Podversic’s decision in 1999 to reject his conventional winemaking education, in favour of a more “back to the roots” style, did not sit well with his dad who denied him usage of the family’s ancestral cellar. Since then he’s developed an impressive and tradition style of skin macerated white wines, following in the footsteps of Josko Gravner.

  • Radikon Cellar 2014

    Year zero at Radikon – Ribolla Gialla 1995

    Simon J Woolf    

    “The really big change was when I tasted the wine. It was something completely new, totally different and exciting. It made me crazy, just tasting it.”

    This is how Stanko Radikon describes the life changing moment in 1995 which prompted him to change the family’s entire wine production to what we now know and love as “orange wines”.

  • Prinčič - Favola 2008 in the glass

    Prinčič and the peronospera: A fable

    Simon J Woolf    

    You can tell a great winemaker not by what they produce in a good year, but by what they pull together from a catastrophic one. And it didn’t get much worse than Dario Prinčič’s 2008 vintage, where some 90% of his harvest was infected with Peronospora (downy mildew). Prinčič salvaged a pitiful amount of grapes, blended the entire output together and made a one off – the aptly named “Favola”, meaning fable or legend.

  • Il Carpino - the sign

    A maceration masterclass at Il Carpino – Ribolla Gialla 2011

    Simon J Woolf    

    If you want to have a masterclass in how skin contact affects white wines, there’s probably no better place than Franco and Anna Sosol’s tasting room. Il Carpino is their 17ha estate, situated on the same winding hill road as Radikon and Gravner, in Friuli Collio.

  • Dario Prinčič - Photo courtesy Associazione Produttori Ribolla di Oslavia

    Dario Prinčič – no ordinary Pinot Grigio

    Simon J Woolf    

    Think Pinot Grigio, think insipid, water white cheap glugging plonk? Think again. Here is a 100% Pinot Grigio from Friuli Collio which confounds everything you ever knew about the variety.Dario Prinčič’s version macerates on its skins for around eight days during fermentation.

  • Josko Gravner - Breg 2004

    Orange weekly: Gravner – Breg 2004

    Simon J Woolf    

    Josko Gravner and Stanko Radikon, both hailing from Oslavje in north-eastern Friuli, pretty much kickstarted the revival of extended skin contact white wine making, in western Europe (In Georgia it has an unbroken history of 8000 years). For me, this makes uncorking a wine from either producer a special event.

    Gravner’s wines are as uncompromising as they are brilliant, produced solely in Georgian qvevris (amphorae) since 2001. This bright amber coloured Breg 2004, a white blend of Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling Italico and Pinot Grigio still feels youthful and rather closed.

  • La Castellada - Ribola Gialla 2009

    Orange weekly: La Castellada – Ribolla Gialla 2009

    Simon J Woolf    

    This 2009 Ribolla Gialla shows absolute mastery of Oslavia’s cherished variety and the extended skin maceration technique which is increasingly associated with this village.

    Brothers Niccolò & Giorgio Bensa started bottling wine at this estate in Oslavia, Friuli Collio in 1985 – their reputation has built impressively ever since. Niccolò’s sons Stefano and Matteo are now involved too. The Bensas were part of the “Gravner group” during the late 1990s, which was so pivotal in reintroducing the traditional methods of extended skin contact and wild yeast ferments.

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