Score: 89/100
This Ribolla Gialla wine, is made from the grape that is said to be autochtonous of the Fiegl winery’s home town, Oaslavia. It is therefore the pride of the area, winemaking-wise.
This is how Fiegl presents this wine: “The Ribolla di Oslavia, before being a wine, is a philosophy of life. The vineyard where we harvest the grapes for this wine is about forty-five years old and lies in one of the best areas of Oslavia, a windy ridge with optimal exposition. In the vineyard most of the operations are done by hand, and the treatments have very low environmental impact. The mowing of the grass in the aisle is done by hand too. The grapes are gathered in cases and stemmed, and then the controlled-temperature maceration can start. During the maceration we work on the fulling, while the temperature is fixed ad 20°C. After the fermentation, with the devatting we separate the skins from the new wine. For the maturation we choose the tonneaux, where the wine evolves for eighteen months. We opted for gravity bottling, so as to cause the wine as little trauma as possible. The sulfur dioxide is added during the pre-bottling, the wine is not filtered.”
The producer though, on their website, gives this 2016 vintage as coming under the Collio DOC, while I was presented with one labeled as Venezia Guila IGT. Not entirely sure what the story behing this is!
Tasting Notes
This Italian white comes in a rather intense golden-yellow color, lightly amber, quite surprising for a young wine.
The nose feels relatively shy and restrained, with delicate notes of honey and nuts only coming through (fresh hazelnut and walnut, smelling like the wood of nutshells more than anything). Perhaps a floral sense does come through, from elderflower or lily aromas, with certainly a waxy feel. Rather interesting, but not overly exciting to smell!
The palate though, is very enjoyable, which I guess is the most important thing!
It brings in another dimension, with a dry yet suave oily texture, augmented by a silky phenolic feel. Bright flavors of sour dough betray the long ageing on lees, with the honey, nutty and waxy flavors coming through positively and quite layered. Mid-length finish but the wine leaves you with a salivating sense of richness, waxy and honey-like, like honeycomb.
A characterful and enjoyable Riballa Gialla wine.
Enjoy 🙂
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