I had this left over from a tasting I held three weeks ago. I really liked it the first two days, then forgot about it on the counter. Tasted about a week ago it was doing ok, but fading…
or so I thought!
Figured i would take out the bottle tonight, figuring it would be a quick taste and then dump the bottle. But nope…this is really freaking tasty!
It has gotten more amber in color and is now a cloudy pale orange/almost copper. Aromas of tea leaf, dried apricots, and honey. Still pretty vibrant on the nose. Still rich and tannic on the palate but without as much of an oily texture. It has a great golden raisin flavor and lots of tea, which I love in a wine. The finish is a little short, but it is still well balanced.
I definitely like this better than a week ago, and I would put it on par with the first night, but in a different way.
the reason I grabbed this particular bottle over the Ribolla was that the sales rep told me that they had left a bottle out for two weeks in the decanter and it was still fine. I had to test for myself and dammit…she was right! Sad to see this bottle go.
I’ve got some of these sitting in the cellar and have heard they do well with some good age, but 2+ weeks in the decanter!?!? Pretty incredible. The aromas and flavors profile sound really interesting.
It was very cool to see this wine come back to life after last week. My girlfriend mentioned that it is sort of like an unfortefied Madeira, or what we can imagine one would taste like. Very fun, I wish i could afford more of these.
For anyone who missed it, here is my origional note from three weeks ago
Gravner 2002 Breg – A blend of Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling Italico, Chardonnal, and Tocai aged in amphorae on the skins and aged for 2 years in large Slovenian oak barrels. Knock out nose here with mint, caramel, smoke, and tangerine. On the palate it was equally rich and complex with a saline quality and a tannic bite at the end. Another polarizing wine that I was all over!
That is the big unknown. '01 is the first vintage where he went to completely amphorae. There is just no data for those.
I had a '97 Breg in '07, but he was working in a different style then. It was rocking along pretty well, but had none of the oxidation fringes like more recent ones.
I’ve had the '01 Breg 5 times over the last 3 yrs and the most recent bottle this January was the most aromatically explosive and powerful one.
The first night I had it right out of the fridge and it was too cold, I prefered it at room temp once it warmed up. After that, I left it out on my counter for the next couple of weeks and tracked it like that. I greatly prefered it at room temp. I generally drink my whites on the warmer side and at my shop we taste all the whites room temp, so that’s what I am more used to.
Because of the oxidation that this usually goes through, it’s not a total shock this did well in a decanter, but more than a week IS incredible.
We had some Joly wines left open in decanters and showed great for about 8 days (that was when the last sip went).
I opened a Cotes de Catalanes wine that is bottled without sulfur, so it oxidizes upon opening. It was decanted for 5 hours in the fridge. The serving temp was just about right. Maybe 10 minutes in the air would have put it in the right spot.
It’s really hard to say what the best serving situation with these wines is, b/c of the oxidation levels in the wines, bottle age, and vintage conditions (03 Radikons shouldn’t be served that cold, or so I have found) really make a huge difference. It’s also about personal taste too.
Great notes on this, Gravner is an awesome producer with truly unique, world class wines.
I had it open and in the fridge after opening for 4 days. It didn’t lose any freshness or balance over the four days but gain a little complexity. I tried it cellar temp (right now the cellar is around 68). Then straight from fridge, then about 65. Liked the last temp the best. Good stuff!
Sergio Esposito’s book Passion on the Vine: A Memoir of Food, Wine, and Family in the Heart of Italy has a really nice write-up on Gravner. (BTW, I am really enjoying the book.) He mentions a Pinot Gris which gets some color extraction from the skins, so it becomes almost rose colored. Personally I really love that in a very few Pinot Gris where this winemaking style is done. Off hand, I can only think of a couple of Canadian wineries that do this (Grey Monk in BC, and Long Dog in Ontario).
Wine-Searcher does not list any Gravner Pinot Gris (or Grigio), does anyone know where I can get a bottle? Is the going rate really ~$100 a bottle?!?
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