{"title":"Vodopivec","description":"\u003cp\u003ePaolo Vodopivec believes that ego is the greatest threat to good winemaking. \"The first problem for wine producers is not oidium, it's ego,\" he has said. That philosophy shapes everything at his estate on the Carso plateau north of Trieste, where he devotes every hectare and every vintage to a single grape: Vitovska.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Vodopivec family has farmed the rocky Carso terrain for generations. In 1997, Paolo and his brother Valter began full-scale wine production and bottling as a serious endeavor. Paolo trained under neighboring legend Josko Gravner before developing his own approach, eventually transitioning from oak barrels to Georgian qvevri for fermentation and aging. He made the switch after a visit to Georgia, where he became convinced that amphora was the truest vessel for his wines. Today, he produces one to two labels depending on the vintage, maintaining the smallest possible footprint with the greatest possible attention.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMore on how they farm and work in the cellar in our \u003ca href=\"\/blogs\/natural-wine-producers-primal-wine\/vodopivec\"\u003eVodopivec producer profile\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"vitovska-2010-paolo-vodopivec-friuli-venezia-giulia-italy-natural-wine","title":"Vodopivec Vitovska 2010","description":"\u003cp\u003eVodopivec'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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eVitovska 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAfter 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.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Vodopivec","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":12931194552375,"sku":"VODOVITO10H","price":80.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0019\/3363\/9735\/files\/vitovska-2010-paolo-vodopivec-friuli-venezia-giulia-italy-natural-wine_e9523695-de12-4fcf-8e9d-9f79ceeb0e49.jpg?v=1780684708"},{"product_id":"vitovska-orange-vodopivec-natural-wine","title":"Vodopivec Vitovska T Orange 2012","description":"\u003cp\u003eAn exploration of the full capabilities of the amphora as an aging vessel, Vodopivec’s “T” is pure Vitovska that is both fermented and aged in amphorae—in this case, of slightly smaller size than his other wines. He includes a portion of stems during the fermentation, and aging takes place for two and a half years, on the lees for the entire time. Compared to the Vitovska, “T” has an immediately more intense and expressive nose, yet still with a remarkably reflective and introspective core. Subtle notes of spice, mustard seed, and dried herbs frame the palate, which displays greater concentration, power, and vibrancy than the two wines above. (source: Rosenthal)\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Vodopivec","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42412055822552,"sku":"VODOVITT12C","price":60.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0019\/3363\/9735\/products\/vodopivec-vitovska-2012-orange-natural-wine-primal-wine.jpg?v=1780184920"},{"product_id":"vitovska-solo-orange-vodopivec-natural-wine","title":"Vodopivec Vitovska Solo Orange MM12","description":"\u003cp\u003ePaolo produces “Solo” from what he considers his greatest vineyard, a 1.3-hectare parcel of pure limestone. Aged like the basic Vitovska —fermented in amphorae and aged in large Slavonian botti—its nose is gorgeous and spellbinding, striking in its purity and unadulterated mineral essence, subtler than the “T” yet more intense and layered than the basic Vitovska. It comes across as almost weightless on the palate, an offering of pure texture and pure stone divorced from the burden of viscosity or alcohol. The finish is saline and incredibly long, fading from perception as slowly and as focused as light receding at the rear end of a tunnel. (source: Rosenthal)\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Vodopivec","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42416346923224,"sku":"VODOMM12C","price":80.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0019\/3363\/9735\/products\/vodopivec-MM12-orange-natural-wine-primal-wine.jpg?v=1780184917"},{"product_id":"vitovska-orange-2016","title":"Vodopivec Vitovska Orange 2016","description":"\u003cp\u003eFermented in amphorae and aged two and a half years in botti, Vodopivec’s Vitovska exemplifies the murmuring, layered beauty of his style. Subtle, deeply stony, and caressing on the palate, it whispers to the taster and invites contemplation as it unfolds slowly and gracefully across the palate. It seems to occupy its own aesthetic space, a pure exploration of cool-toned texture, Rothko-like in its single-minded yet comfortingly enveloping character. (source: Rosenthal)\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Vodopivec","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42416363045080,"sku":"vodopivec-vitovska16-0023","price":70.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0019\/3363\/9735\/files\/vodopivec-vitovska-2016-natural-wine.png?v=1780684747"}],"url":"https:\/\/primalwine.com\/collections\/vodopivec.oembed","provider":"Primal Wine","version":"1.0","type":"link"}