Year zero at Radikon - Ribolla Gialla 1995

Stanko Radikon describes the life changing moment in 1995 which prompted him to switch his entire production to orange wine.

"The really big change was when I tasted the wine. It was something completely new, totally different and exciting. It made me crazy, just tasting it."

This is how Stanko Radikon describes the life changing moment in 1995 which prompted him to switch the family's entire wine production to what we now know and love as "orange wines". Dissatisfied with the paucity of flavour and expression he was extracting from Ribolla Gialla (a thick skinned white grape variety indigenous to the region), Radikon conducted an experiment - he took half the harvest of Ribolla and wild fermented it with the skins for 7 days, just as his grandfather would have done.

The extended skin contact brought out an intensity of flavours and aromas that surprised even its creator. This rediscovered method would eventually help kickstart a new trend in wine, spreading to the wine geeks and sommeliers of New York, London and the world.