Marjan Simcic Ribolla Opoka 2021

Drink it now or cellar for up to 10 years. No need to decant , but best to open it half an hour before service. Located between the Slovenian Brda and the Friulian Collio, Marjan Simcic is a talented winemaker who in 1988 took over the family winery founded in 1860. Today the company produces three lines of wines: the Brda Classic from the youngest vineyards, the Cru Selection line from the oldest vineyards, and the Opoka line made in the best vintages. This extraordinary example of Slovenian Ribolla Gialla is produced with grapes from over seventy-year-old vines located in the Medana Jama Cru vineyard in Brda at an altitude of about 140-160 meters on soils with a particular composition of marl and sandstone locally called opaka. After manual harvesting, the grapes are fermented in concrete vats with the skins. The finished wine then rests for about 20 months in wood. The result is an elegant, characterful, and complex wine that reveals excellent aging potential. Marjan Simcic Ribolla Opoka has an intense and clear color with golden tones and an expressive aromatic profile with notes of stone fruit, orange blossom, and wild herbs followed by delicate spicy hints. On the palate, it reveals a pleasant mineral vein and a fresh and balanced character. It is lively and savory, intense and concentrated with a long refreshing finish. It is excellent with smoked trout, eggs with truffles, and basically with all shellfish.

Price: £33.60 from 8wines UK