Winemaker Notes
The Ribolla Gialla tastes like hazelnuts, baking spices, meyer lemon curd, Bartlett pear, but most of all it has a stony minerality that is incredibly distinctive. There is supple tannic structure and fresh balanced acidity, with great weight and length given the low alcohol.
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
Josko Gravner gave George Vare cuttings from his Ribolla Gialla vines in Friuli, which Vare grafted at his Napa Valley vineyard in 2001. Steve Matthiasson was managing Vare’s vineyard at the time, and when he and his wife, Jill, purchased their Oak Knoll vineyard in 2006, they grafted some Merlot over to Ribolla using Vare’s budwood. Their 2015 is a fleshy white with orange and honeycomb richness. Give it time and the wine’s freshness comes up, bringing scents of pear in a crisp, clean line of flavor. The fruit is crunchy even as the texture is full and waxy, placing this with rich dishes, from roast halibut to boudin blanc.
The exact origins of Ribolla Gialla remain unclear, though it most likely came to Friuli before the 1200s by way of Slovenia, where it goes by the moniker, Rebula. Blanketing vineyard hillsides along the Italian-Slovenian border, unconcerned about which side it is on, this pink-skinned variety creates a range of styles from the crisp, dry, still or sparkling whites to the charmingly ephemeral, skin-contact orange wines. Somm Secret—If you’re into orange wines, go visit Collio’s Oslavia and Slovenia’s Goriska Brda regions. They are so close you’ll hardly know you’ve gone from one to the other.
As one of Napa’s coolest sub-appellations, the area begs for diversity among its vineyards. Merlot and Chardonnay firmly compete with Cabernet Sauvignon for a place here. Some of Napa’s best Zinfandels also come from the Oak Knoll District.
Situated far in Napa’s southern end, Oak Knoll receives a strong cooling influence from both the San Pablo Bay and the Pacific Coast’s evening fog and breezes. Summer days are warm but on average ten degrees cooler than in St. Helena farther north up the valley; summer nights are chilly. A long growing season promotes for leisurely ripening of grape berries, resulting in an impressive balance of sugars, phenols and acidity.
Notable producers include Trefethen, one of the appellation’s oldest wineries, Robert Biale, legendary Zinfandel producer and Lewis Cellars, a family-run, hands-on establishment.