Marjan Simcic Leonardo 37.5cl 2015

The Leonardo Passito can only be introduced by Marjan himself,
”A feature special to our cellar, Leonardo sweet wine is produced with 5,000 kg of extraordinary Ribolla grapes that are hand picked and air dried for seven months in wooden barrels. During natural drying, these late picked grapes, that are fully mature and carefully selected, lose more than 90% of their weight, due to the slow drying process. The skin wrinkles (raisins), the sugar and acid levels rise. The naturally obtained concentrations of sugar and other components give the wine a greater aroma and complexity. Due to its specifically tawny colour, amateurs can predict an extremely complex wine that can hardly be described in words. This special wine offers a variety of pleasant aromas and fragrances that change over time, maturating and combining in perfect harmony. In the young wine, a typically sophisticated aroma of Ribolla grapes prevails. It slowly grows into mild fragrances of vanilla, honey, dry fruit (apricot, fig…), soft lemon blossom, orange peel, light tobacco… The first impression in the mouth is always silky – perfectly brilliant. The bouquet is repeated in the mouth. For an instant, you have the feeling that dry apricot prevails. However, we are more surprised by the extremely strong, but not boastful character, with an extraordinary elegance and harmony. A successful preservation of the balance between sugar and acids lend the wine a pleasant sweetness and freshness. A mild bitterness rounds off whole in a perfect harmony. The aftertaste is really fabulous, as the wine tells a story that lasts and lasts”.
50 cases made

Decanter World Wine Awards 2020 – One of 50 Best in Show winners – 2015 Vintage
“The great Rebula variety (Ribolla Gialla over the border in Collio) is one of the wine world’s originals. It’s original in dry guise, where it tends to suggest cheese, nuts and protein as much as fruit; and it’s no less original in the rarer sweet guise, too, as a sip of this profoundly scented, russet-amber wine will quickly show. Despite its ample and tangy sugars, the wine is fresh, deep and briskly balanced, though that balance is the legacy of much more than simple acidity but derives from fruit perfume, a little tannin and extract, too, including a saline note. And what of those aromas? Flowers and orchard fruits are a part of the spectrum, but so too is mint, pine resin, fresh mushroom, pollen and honey itself. No wine in our Top 50 is more complex than this one.”