How do you make history 📜 take note of you? Remember you like one of her own? You rewrite it, ✍ beautifully ofcourse, and with deep passion and love 💕
Stanko Radikon was a revolutionary winemaker, and a pioneering figure for natural wine movement and now, stuff of legend. Orange wines, some whites, referred to as orange wines (because of the color), are natural wines made without addition of any sulphur.
Sounds simple? Except sulphur is a critical stablising agent and when you take that out completely, you make that already very difficult winemaking process incredibly, incredibly hard. Stanko turned to tradition of what his ancestors taught when he started to work on this small 12 hectare estate on the Slovenian border of Italy and over the 36 vintages he presided over, refined every aspect of it to the point of perfection.
Our personal favorite ofcourse is the work he did on unique bottling of 1L so his wines could age well (borrowing from how magnums are considered the best format for ageing). It seems that project led him onto a journey where he had to convince glass makers to design the special bottle with special necks to allow the special corks to fit in perfectly.😅
That's like making an already tough job of severe selection and natural fermentation, minimal intervention without any latest technological help, ten times harder. Thanks to Stanko, what he envisioned, is now for the 🌏 to taste, admire, love and collect.
The bottles have great ageing potential and are an absolute treat. In the glass, Ribolla Gialla made from Ribolla grapes is often described with citrus notes of lemon, lime and orange, very floral and deeply meditative. Ribolla Gailla undergoes extended maceration in oak vats for 2 to 4 months before being left to age for 4 yrs in 35hl casks followed by 2 yrs of bottle ageing. Stanko's work with oak in the winery is beyond exceptional 🏆🏅 Sasa, Stanko's son, who trained under him for years, and led the winery together with him took over the mantle after Stanko's untimely death in 2016. He is continuing the great tradition 💕
Tasting Notes & Reviews:
"Deep orangey gold. Amber bright. Fabulous aroma – so intense. Orange, Seville orange marmalade (but not sweet), ginger, dried grasses, reduced apricots, spice. Deep and chewy and fresh on the palate. Amazing intensity of spiced, dried orange peel. A contrast between bitter/sour fruit sweetness and the sour, salty complexity. Orange-infused tea. Firmly tannic but so well balanced by the fruit. The flavour lasts forever and it is so utterly mouth-watering. Juicy, salty finish even in a tannic wine and then all that lovely apricot-ripe sweetness even though it is dry." 18/20 Julia Harding/JancisRobinson, Aug 2018
Stanko Radikon was a revolutionary winemaker, and a pioneering figure for natural wine movement and now, stuff of legend. Orange wines, some whites, referred to as orange wines (because of the color), are natural wines made without addition of any sulphur.
Sounds simple? Except sulphur is a critical stablising agent and when you take that out completely, you make that already very difficult winemaking process incredibly, incredibly hard. Stanko turned to tradition of what his ancestors taught when he started to work on this small 12 hectare estate on the Slovenian border of Italy and over the 36 vintages he presided over, refined every aspect of it to the point of perfection.
Our personal favorite ofcourse is the work he did on unique bottling of 1L so his wines could age well (borrowing from how magnums are considered the best format for ageing). It seems that project led him onto a journey where he had to convince glass makers to design the special bottle with special necks to allow the special corks to fit in perfectly.😅
That's like making an already tough job of severe selection and natural fermentation, minimal intervention without any latest technological help, ten times harder. Thanks to Stanko, what he envisioned, is now for the 🌏 to taste, admire, love and collect.
The bottles have great ageing potential and are an absolute treat. In the glass, Ribolla Gialla made from Ribolla grapes is often described with citrus notes of lemon, lime and orange, very floral and deeply meditative. Ribolla Gailla undergoes extended maceration in oak vats for 2 to 4 months before being left to age for 4 yrs in 35hl casks followed by 2 yrs of bottle ageing. Stanko's work with oak in the winery is beyond exceptional 🏆🏅 Sasa, Stanko's son, who trained under him for years, and led the winery together with him took over the mantle after Stanko's untimely death in 2016. He is continuing the great tradition 💕
Tasting Notes & Reviews:
"Deep orangey gold. Amber bright. Fabulous aroma – so intense. Orange, Seville orange marmalade (but not sweet), ginger, dried grasses, reduced apricots, spice. Deep and chewy and fresh on the palate. Amazing intensity of spiced, dried orange peel. A contrast between bitter/sour fruit sweetness and the sour, salty complexity. Orange-infused tea. Firmly tannic but so well balanced by the fruit. The flavour lasts forever and it is so utterly mouth-watering. Juicy, salty finish even in a tannic wine and then all that lovely apricot-ripe sweetness even though it is dry." 18/20 Julia Harding/JancisRobinson, Aug 2018