Gravner – less is more

Gravner's amphora cellar in Friuli

Walter falls under the spell of the philosopher of Friuli.

I will not easily forget the first time, in 2019, I saw the cellar of Josko Gravner, the iconic Friulian winemaker famous for being the first to use qvevri, the then exotic Georgian clay vessels (which Gravner prefers to call anfora). They are now hugely popular, not only in Italy but in much of the wine world. Four metres under the earth in Oslavia, a beautiful, tranquil corner in the far east of Friuli right on the border with Slovenia, a part of Central Europe which saw its social...