The 2001 Ribolla Gialla is a horse of a different color compared to the innocuous, overly acidic wines usually yielded by this grape. Golden in color (the wine macerates for a substantial period on the skins of the grapes), honeyed and lightly tropical, it manages to put enough weight, ripeness, and dimension into the bottle to counteract the acidity, which here merely refreshes instead of dominating. Damijan Podversic, whose name testifies to the presence of a sizeable minority of Slovenian origin in eastern Friuli, is a totally committed young producer. He is not from a family of cultivators and inherited no vineyard land, so he simply purchased overgrown brush land high on a hill overlooking the sea and proceeded to clear and plant terrain which had not seen a vine since World War I. It has been a struggle all the way, but the wines deserve close attention, as they reflect the strong and determined personality of their maker.Importer: Montecastelli Selections, New York, NY; tel. (212) 414-4898