The UnCorker

Weird Wine of the Week: 2002 Damijan Bianco “Kaplja”

From Venezia-Giulia in the far Northeast of Italy comes this unusual beauty- Damijan Podversic is something of a maverick, shunning stainless steel, commercial yeasts, and strives to make “living wines”. His vineyards straddle the Italian-Slovenian border, and his methods are so old, they’re practically new. A blend of Malvasia Istriana, Chardonnay, and Tocai Friulano (now referred to simply as Friulano) fermented on its skins in old upright Slavonian oak, Damijan uses bio-dynamic practices, neither fines nor filters, and bottles under a full moon. The Bianco Kaplja is a cloudy, heady brew- served at cellar temperature, it reveals orange blossom on the nose, and a piercing apricot stonefruit on the palate- from the skins comes a tremendous amount of structure, mostly in the form of tannin, which keeps the wine endlessly interesting- this is a wine to meditate over, sniff, swirl and contemplate- this is what white wine was before stainless steel, refrigeration, and temperature controlled fermentations-