Ribolla Gialla by Princic

Ribolla Gialla – said quickly sounds like a Mexican expression of incredulity, but you can believe that this is one interesting variety.

The grape is believed to have originated in Greece; Jancis Robinson asserts that the Robola of the Cephalonia is “almost certainly” the same grape and it made its way up to the Friuli-Venezia Giulia by way of Slovenia. The first written documentation of the grape was in a 1289 notarial contract on vineyard land in the Friuli region. During the 14th century, the Italian poet Giovanni Boccaccio listed indulgence of Ribolla wines as one of the sins of gluttony in his diatribe on the subject. Then I doth like to commit gluttony on a grand scale.

When the Duke of Austria, Leopold III, established reign over Trieste one of his stipulations was that the city supply him each year with 100 urns of the region’s best Ribolla wine. By 1402, the reputation of the wine made from the grape was high enough for the city of Udine to feel compelled to enact a law which prohibited the adulteration of any wine made from Ribolla. In 2008 another law was enacted to prevent the local water supply from being adulterated by Pinot Grigio. In the 18th century, the Italian writer Antonio Musnig rated Ribolla wine as the finest white wine in the Friuli.

The phylloxera epidemic of the 19th century took a hard toll on Ribolla plantings with many Friuli vineyards owners choosing to replant their land with imported French wine grapes like Merlot and Sauvignon blanc rather than the local grape varieties. More recently its fortunes have revived.

Dario Princic is a genius and makes his wines in a particular way. All the vineyard is chemical free since 1988. 100% fermented juice, nothing is added… Here is simple recipe for natural wine
*Grapes are harvested late to achieve the maximum maturity and aromatic expression.
*All indigenous yeast
*No batonnage is made as the lees moves dynamically.
*No filtration, no clarification - nowt taken out
*Twenty-five days skin contact maceration
*The fermentation of the Ribolla is longer than the Tokay (say) because the skin is tighter and yields less juice.
*The wine tarries for three years in used barriques (seven to ten years old) on the lees before bottling

My first experience of this grape variety was Gravner’s; I remember that it smelled of warm peach skin and fruit tea and had an almost granular texture. Princic’s Ribolla has a beautiful amber sheen with the appearance of glowing marmalade. The aromas are understated, suggestive of candied apricot, tangerine and peach-skin with secondary leesy notes of dry ginger, yeast and white pepper. The mouth, gentle at first with an underlying touch of astringency, reveals delicately waxy apricots and yellow plums with some sherry and almond. The wine is linear, quite taut and simply delicious and would be so good with a chunky bouillabaisse.