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Vodopivec

Vitovska 2010

Price: $79.95
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Tasting notes

The 2010 is the sole wine from that vintage and the first from Vodopivec's new cellar, making it a singular document of that year in Carso. Six months of skin contact in buried Georgian amphorae followed by 24 months in large Slavonian oak gives it a texture that is at once structured and precise, with dried apricot, orange zest, and a chalky limestone minerality that is unmistakably from this plateau.

BodyFruitTanninAcidity
Taste profile
Dried ApricotOrange ZestHoneysuckleSaline Mineral
  • Style: Dry, medium-bodied orange wine; medium amber, lightly hazy; dried apricot, orange zest, saline mineral; 12.5% ABV
  • Grapes & Terroir: 100% Vitovska; organic and biodynamic; rocky limestone with iron-rich Terra Rossa soils; 260m elevation, Carso plateau, Trieste
  • Winemaking: Destemmed; 6-month skin maceration in buried Georgian clay amphorae; basket pressed; 24 months in 30-hl Slavonian oak; no fining, no filtration
  • Serving: Serve at 55-60F; open 30-45 minutes before serving; decant lightly to separate any sediment
  • Pairing: Grilled whole fish, cured sardines, sea urchin pasta, aged pecorino, cured pork
  • Similar To: For fans of Gravner and Radikon who want an even more mineral-focused, restrained expression of Carso

Vodopivec's Vitovska 2010 is a skin-contact wine from the Carso sub-region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, grown on a limestone plateau at 260 meters elevation near Trieste, on the border with Slovenia. The vineyards sit on rocky limestone soils high in iron and magnesium, farmed organically and biodynamically without irrigation, synthetic chemicals, herbicides, or pesticides. The 2010 vintage was the only wine produced that year and the first wine made in Vodopivec's new cellar, with grapes harvested on September 22nd.

Vitovska is a rare indigenous cross of Prosecco Tondo (Glera) and Malvasia Bianca Lunga, cultivated across roughly 60 hectares total in Italy and Slovenia. Of that, Vodopivec farms 6 hectares exclusively to this variety. The grape's thick skins make it well suited to extended maceration. Destemmed and pressed with a manual basket press, it ferments on the skins for six months in buried Georgian clay amphorae with no temperature control and no added yeasts.

After skin contact, the wine is basket pressed into large 30-hectoliter Slavonian oak barrels for 24 months, with decanting as needed. It is bottled without fining, filtration, or physicochemical stabilizers. The result is a medium amber wine, transparent with a touch of haze, showing dried apricot, orange zest, honeysuckle, saline mineral, and fine tannins from the prolonged maceration. Production reaches a maximum of around 12,000 bottles across the entire estate in any vintage.

The wine's saline minerality and firm acidity make it a natural match for seafood: grilled whole fish, cured sardines, or lightly dressed seafood pasta. It also holds up to aged cheeses, cured pork, and dishes with iodized or umami-rich ingredients like miso-glazed white fish or sea urchin.

Wine details

Dry/Sweet:, Dry
Wine Type:, Orange Wine
Wine Style:, Medium Body
Grapes:, Vitovska
Farming:, Organic and Biodynamic
Vintage:, 2010
Alcohol:, 12.5%
Country:, Italy
Region:, Friuli-Venezia Giulia
Appellation:, Venezia Giulia IGT
Bottle Size:, 750ml
Sugar Level:, Zero Added Sugar

We will process and ship your order in 2-3 business days, you will receive a shipping confirmation email with tracking as soon as the Carrier scans the shipping label.

Ground shipping time depends on location, here's a breakdown:

West Coast: 1-2 business days
Midwest: 3-4 business days
East Coast: 5 business days

Process time is not shipping time. Shipping time starts from the days successive to the day of shipping, after the order has been processed.

See here our shipping policy.


Important Compliance Requirements

FedEx and other carriers we might occasionally use can only deliver wine to customers who are 21 years or older. Someone must be at the address to receive the package, carriers don't just drop a package and leave. They must ensure the person receiving the wine is 21 or older.


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If a package is returned to us after three failed delivery attempts, we can only re-ship the wine upon payment of a re-shipping fee, to be determined based on the shipping address and number of bottles. Shipping wine is extremely expensive. We are sorry about this, but we have no other choice. Please make sure there's always someone at the address you enter as your shipping address.

If you'd like to receive a refund for a package that was returned to us after FedEx made three delivery attempts, we can do that but we must keep a $20 refund fee; FedEx charges us a lot of money for returns, unfortunately, I can't stress this enough.


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Heat/Frost damage

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Placed an order. What next?

1. You will receive an order confirmation email with your order summary.*

2. As soon as your order ships from the warehouse, usually within 2-3 business days, this applies to all shipping rates, you will receive a shipping confirmation email with your tracking information. 2DAY shipping refers to shipping time; we still need 2-3 business days to prepare an order. We need to pick and pack, QA, add printed collateral, and palletize the orders.

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4. The carrier will attempt delivery a maximum of 3 times. After 3 delivery attempts, your package will be sent back to our warehouse.**

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**If delivery is attempted 3 times without success, or if you fail to retrieve your package from the carrier depot by the stated deadline, the shipping fee will not be refunded to the customer.

Returns Policy

If you are not satisfied with your purchase, please contact us at (424) 414-2040 or via e-mail at hello@primalwine.com between 9 am and 5 pm Pacific Standard Time, Monday through Sunday, we would like to understand and try to solve your concerns. We can offer refunds only as store credit.

Producer profile

Vodopivec

The Vodopivec family has farmed in the Carso district of Trieste for generations. Brothers Paolo and Valter Vodopivec began full-scale wine production and bottling under their family name in 1997, based in Sgonico near Trieste. Early in his career, Paolo was identified by outside observers as part of the same circle as Josko Gravner, and he traveled alone to Georgia to study the qvevri tradition firsthand before the country had fully opened to foreign visitors. The estate covers 6 hectares planted entirely to Vitovska.

Vodopivec farms organically and biodynamically. He does not irrigate, does not transport topsoil, and uses no synthetic chemicals, herbicides, or pesticides. On the Carso's thin-soiled limestone bedrock, he has physically broken up compacted rock to improve drainage and root penetration, then returned the original topsoil. In poor vintages he will skip production entirely: the rainy 2008 vintage yielded no wines at all. Annual production reaches a maximum of around 12,000 bottles across all wines.

In the cellar, Vodopivec uses no stainless steel, no temperature control equipment, and no pneumatic press. Grapes are destemmed and fermented on the skins in buried Georgian clay amphorae, plunged multiple times daily, for six months. After basket pressing, wine is transferred to 30-hectoliter Slavonian oak barrels for 24 months, decanted as needed, then bottled without fining, filtration, or physicochemical stabilizers. Depending on the vintage, Paolo may produce between one and four separate selections; the 2010 was a single wine only.

Wine region

Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy

Friuli-Venezia Giulia sits in the northeast corner of Italy, bordered by Austria to the north, Slovenia to the east, the Adriatic Sea to the south, and Veneto to the west. Within it, the Carso is a stark limestone plateau stretching from Trieste toward Gradisca d'Isonzo, roughly 40 kilometers long and 12 kilometers wide inland from the Gulf of Trieste. Vineyards sit at an average elevation around 260-330 meters, exposed to the Bora, a cold northerly wind that can gust above 200 kilometers per hour and acts as a natural drying agent against disease pressure. The climate is moderately continental on the plateau, with strong Adriatic influence bringing iodized air and warm summers offset by significant day-night temperature swings in late summer.

The Carso DOC (Carso-Kras DOC) was established in 1996 and covers wines from the limestone plateau around Trieste and Gorizia. Soils are dominated by rocky limestone with a distinctive iron-rich red sand stratum called Terra Rossa, which contributes to the pronounced minerality in wines from this zone. Vitovska is the flagship white grape of the Carso, grown across approximately 60 hectares in total between Italy and Slovenia. Other varieties grown in the appellation include Malvasia Istriana, Refosco dal Peduncolo Rosso, and Terrano. Friuli-Venezia Giulia more broadly is home to Collio, Colli Orientali del Friuli, and Grave DOC zones, but the Carso stands apart for its extreme geology and its concentration of producers working with extended skin maceration.

Frequently asked question

We will process and ship your order in 2-3 business days, you will receive a shipping confirmation email with tracking as soon as the Carrier scans the shipping label.

Ground shipping time depends on location, here's a breakdown:

West Coast: 1-2 business days
Midwest: 3-4 business days
East Coast: 5 business days

Process time is not shipping time. Shipping time starts from the days successive to the day of shipping, after the order has been processed.

See here our shipping policy.

Signature on delivery is mandatory for wine deliveries. Please make sure someone is at the shipping address to sign for the package.

If applicable, please consider delivering the package to a business address to ensure someone is available to sign for the package.

We also have the option of delivering the package to a Carrier's store for pickup. Please reach out to us to coordinate.

Carrier will try to delivery a package up to three times before returning the package to us.

See here our shipping policy.

If you miss a delivery and a package gets returned to us we have two options:

1) Reship the package right away: due to the very high cost of shipping and returns, we must charge a re-shipping fee to be determined based on package size and shipping destination.

2) Consolidate the returned package with your next order: this option is free of charge and it's the most popular option.

See here our shipping policy.

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