Vitovska 'Origine' Vodopivec 2015

"We owe to the small company of Vodopivec brothers some of the most exciting versions ever tasted of the most important white wine of Karst, Vitovska". So goes the review of L'Espresso Guide to the Wines of Italy dedicated to Vodopivec, highlighting the absolute preminence of this wine-cellar located in between of the Italian and the Slovenian sides of Karst, in one of the harshest areas of North East where the intensity of Bora wind lashes at the vines and the rock becomes a metaphor of the absolute singleness of this ecosystem. First and only love of Vodopivec brothers is Vitovska, according to a precise mono-varietal choice that rewards the deep tradition of this Karst indigenous variety, grown in a small strip of land just by a few producers. For Vodopivec brothers turning Vitovska in a genuine wine is a truly rigorous task, which does not allow any shortcut: not more than ten thousand plants per hectare, not more than half a kilogram of grapes per plant, no use of fertilizers, insecticides or fungicides and production only in the best years, according to a philosophy that recognizes the balance inherent to the nature and conceives the farming practice not as an interference but as a form of listening to the language of the earth and a genuine interpretation of this. To all this you can sum up cellar operations that can accommodate the natural aromatic momentum of the grapes and prepare the wine for a long evolution over time: as in the tradition, each process takes place in large Slavonian oak barrels, where the grape-juice remains in contact with the skins and gain substance and structure from them. After nearly 7 years Vitovska by Vodopivec is ready to express itself in all its fullness and thanks to this “long journey” this "red dress in white" makes evident its uniqueness of expression, which turns every taste in a special meeting with the Karst pride. For this reason, Vodopivec’s Vitovska is a hymn to the earth, as much as a a proof of the wonderful symbiosis that can be created between the wine and the passage of time.