Gravner Ribolla Gialla 2014

This legendary, profoundly complex, and highly meditative amber (skin-contact) wine stands as a monumental masterpiece of the natural wine world. It opens with an otherworldly, shifting bouquet of dried apricots, preserved orange peel, and baked yellow apples, masterfully layered with sophisticated notes of beeswax, wild honey, dried sage, white truffle, and a hint of smoky flint. On the full-bodied palate, it strikes an incredible, seamless balance between a multi-layered, texturally rich core of stone fruits and an electric, life-giving regional acidity. A structural frame of chalky, tea-like phenolics and deep mineral tension gives it remarkable vertical architecture, carrying into an extraordinarily long, bone-dry, and deeply savory finish.

Food Pairing: A majestic partner for complex gastronomy; pairs flawlessly with roasted duck or goose, slow-cooked pork belly, rich mushroom and truffle dishes, aged cheeses, or traditional cured meats.

95 Points - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate 

From a much cooler vintage that generally produced slender and elegant wines, this is a darkly colored orange wine with shiny copper and ruby highlights. The Gravner 2014 Ribolla is a very successful interpretation of this unique grape from northeast Italy. Although you get macerated flavors that are found in other vintages, this wine shows more silkiness and subdued nuance. It does not have as much of that dusty white grape tannic quality that you often get in these wines. The bouquet is beautiful, with dried apricot and brandy, and this wine from 2014 is drinking beautifully right now.

95 Points - Wine Spectator 

Burnished brass in color, with a fragrant supernova of heather, milled white pepper, fennel seed and crushed pine aromatics exploding from the glass. Firm and chalky in texture on the palate, layering sleek acidity with flavors of dried raspberry, white cherry, iodine, almond skin, chopped rosemary and iron that slowly expand through the long, concentrated finish. This distinctive offering is a gorgeous example of a skin-contact wine. Drink now through 2029. 225 cases imported.