Since 1988, in Collio Goriziano, land marked by a fratricidal war during the Second World War, there is the winery of Damijan Podversic, with its vineyards, located on the top of Monte Calvario, protected by a thick bush. Damijan’s vocation for viticulture was inherited by his grandfather, who cultivated lands not owned by selling wine for a handful of air, and by his father, from whom he inherited just half a hectare. Only with many sacrifices and determination did Podversic, assisted by his wife Elena and her three children, manage to expand the extension of vineyards, reaching about 10.5 hectares. In order to vinify these grapes in the best possible way, the construction works of the new cellar are about to be completed, almost entirely buried to guarantee a cooler ambient temperature, thanks also to the sandstone marl (ponka) left exposed, based on the principle of winemaking by gravity. Here will be hosted the grapes, fruit of a viticulture of natural imprint, even if Damijan himself admits that “wine in nature does not exist; to obtain it, it is necessary to carry out two technical activities: harvesting and crushing, after which the fermentations start. The most important work must be done in the vineyard”.
The starting point is therefore the grape, which is harvested manually at full maturity (and even beyond) and sent in small wooden boxes to the cellar. As soon as it arrives it faces the process of vinification in wood, scrupulously following the lunar phases, with a period of maceration on the skins of about 3 months (from when the first spontaneous tumultuous fermentation starts until the end of the malolactic fermentation) and a period of aging in large wood. The white wine Kaplja Riserva, for example, obtained from entirely botrytised grapes, comes from a south-west facing vineyard, at 110 meters above sea level, purchased in 1991 in Gradiscutta. It is a blend of Chardonnay (40%), Malvasia (30%) and Nekaj (30%) cultivated, with a very low yield (20 quintals per hectare), on a very poor soil, where clay of aeolian sediments (Opoka) and marl from stratified sandstone (Ponka) coexist. A wine that, after 60-90 days of fermentation and maceration, ages for 6 years in barrels of 20 and 30 hectoliters, and for other 4 in the bottle, before marketing.
The 2005 vintage has a slightly veiled amber color, and an olfactory range that starts from vinyl, sultanas, chlorophyll, dried apricot and wildflower honey, with a side of herbs, kumquat, caramelized apple and candied citron, and distant echoes of toasted almond, dried white flowers, macerated tea and saffron. In the mouth the wine impresses for its freshness, both balsamic and citric, and sapidity, along with a slight tannic effect, the result of prolonged maceration on the skins, and a discreet roundness, all accompanied by the retro-olfactory return of vinyl, tea, chlorophyll and citrus fruits that accompany the sip until a closure of considerable length and persistence.
Rating: 92/100
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