2014 Gravner Ribolla

Like falling down the rabbit hole, the 2014 Ribolla Gialla Anfora entrances with a menagerie of dried apricots, peaches, honeyed florals, ginger-tinged baked pear and dusty stone. It engulfs the palate with plush textures, displaying medium-bodied weight, with enriching notes of apple butter complicated by allspice and minerals that add a more tactile feel. This resonates with blood orange and an air of cedar while maintaining a spellbinding vivacity. There's an energy and lightness of being encapsulated within the 2014 that I find wildly appealing.

Sample 1 : from the Gravner glass. Just a touch paler than the 2013. Pale golden amber. Seductive and deep, yet cool. Acacia honey with dried-apricot and chamomile hints and a layer of crushed wet stones and lapsang oolong. On the palate, a richer impression with enormous depth, yet contained, and with fantastic, tactile acidity that seamlessly ties in the fruit. Very fine tannic tail on the finish. Sample 2 : from a conventional wine glass. A layered, deep, savoury nose that tends towards dried-apricot fruit with hints of salt in which capers were preserved. Orange, honey and hints of fruit mostarda . It is almost perfumed and rises out of the glass like a cloud. Long, tightly stitched together with a super-fine, sandpapery texture. (WS)