Producer Profile
Gravner
Friuli, Italy

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Gravner

Gorizia, Friuli, Italy

Lessons on silence, calm and balance

Joško Gravner is a pioneering figure in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy, whose visionary approach has redefined how we understand wine, terroir, and tradition. Located near Gorizia in the Collio region, his estate in Oslavia has become synonymous with amber (or “orange”) wine and buried amphora fermentation. Gravner’s wines are revered not only for their depth and balance but for the philosophical calm they impart to each bottle.

Location: Gorizia, Friuli, Italy

Website: gravner.it

Viticultural standards: Biodynamic

Total area under vine: 37 hectares

Interesting fact:Despite being celebrated globally, Gravner remains fiercely independent. He famously refused to install a CO₂ monitoring device, preferring candlelight in his cellar over regulatory bureaucracy. And though biodynamic farming only gained his respect after empirically noticing its benefits, he avoided certification to do it “for the vineyards, not the label”. In 2020, he extended his amphora tradition by experimenting with an open-air amphora “garden” on his hillside—an echo of fermenting “with the universe”.

Gravner wines

Gravner

From Family Vines to Global Influence

Born into a winemaking family in the 1940s, Gravner took over the estate in 1973. He initially embraced modern trends—stainless-steel tanks, barriques, chemical fertilizers—until a hailstorm in 1996 destroyed much of his crop. This forced him to deeply rethink his approach and led to his first skin-contact macerations, which unveiled the expressive potential of Ribolla Gialla. His subsequent experimentation with amphorae inspired a complete transformation to natural, low-intervention practices. Gravner’s shift awakened a global movement toward terroir-driven, traditional techniques.

Gravner

Gravner farms approximately 37 hectares of high-density vineyards, mostly Ribolla Gialla and Pignolo on steep Collio slopes, with the rest planted to international varieties that he now phases out. He follows organic and biodynamic principles, pruning twice for greater focus and harvesting over two to three weeks to allow noble rot where appropriate. Far from pure ideology, Gravner’s commitment comes from experience: he removed chemical fertilizers and steel tanks after concluding modern methods muted the soul of his land.

“I make wine I like to drink” – Joško Gravner.

In the cellar, Gravner uses large Georgian qvevris that are up to 2,500 L buried underground, several amphoras hold his wines for months on the skins. He avoids temperature control, selected yeasts, filtration, and modern additives. After six months of maceration, wines are aged in old Slavonian oak barrels for a total of around seven years before release. In 2024, he added inert glass-lined tanks to scale while maintaining purity.

Gravner

Gravner wines capture a remarkable balance of structure, texture, and vivid earthy aromas, achieved through minimal intervention and meticulous ageing. His Ribolla Gialla skins extract complexity and colour, while Pignolo reds exhibit layered finesse. These wines are renowned for their ability to age gracefully. Critics say they convey the slow tempo of Collio’s calcareous soils and Adriatic breezes, each sip is a meditation on place and passage.

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