Damijan Podversic

Why Damijan Podversic is Essential

Few winemakers have rocked me like Damijan Podversic has. His wines are at once mystifying and beautiful, quenching yet complex. There is always a kernel of the unexpected — some sensation I never knew a wine could conjure — yet make no mistake on that comment, they are without fault.

Damijan is now slowly stepping back, while his daughter, Tamara, is leaning in. She is more than capable of the task, and already, I can sense this will be one of those transitions that takes a winery to a new place while staying true to its original spirit. Like her father, Tamara is meticulous but also curious, and her passion is infectious. Barrel tasting with her in the family’s cellar revealed nuances to the wine’s tannins, and even the beneficial role of botrytis on dry wines, that I didn’t know existed.

But for all the excitement these wines generate, it is wonderful to see them participating in the Collio DOC while doing it. Sometimes, highly intellectual winemakers lose the feeling of place. They get too caught up in their own big ideas to play along with the community that surrounds them. Not here.

What Barolo, Brunello and Chianti Classico are to Italian red wine, Collio is to Italian white wine: one of the top three greatest places for consistency, thanks to the persistence generated from the region’s ponca soil. Yet this place is also predicated on diversity, and how numerous grape varieties offer a different sense of harmony with the ponca soil.

To that end, Podversic strikes me as the ultimate Collio producer, capable of allowing Friulano, Malvasia Istriana, Ribolla Gialla — as well as international varieties like Pinot Grigio and Chardonnay — to shine brightest while also lending substance and gravitas from their cellar technique. For those familiar with Friuli’s benchmark producers, Podversic feels halfway between Gravner and Borgo del Tiglio. As aromatically emotive as the former; as classically etched and timeless as the latter. But whereas Gravner’s power tends to stop you in your tracks, and Borgo del Tiglio tends to tell you to wait, the wines at Podversic immediately offer an easy grace that leads you along. In the end, these wines leave me wanting for nothing else. They are expressive, soulful, unique and most importantly, versatile and consistent.

Wines to Seek Out

Succinctly describing the winemaking methods at Damijan Podversic misses the point a bit, because this father-daughter tandem adjust annually to the Collio’s dramatic vintage variation. For the white wines, there will always be a degree of maceration involved to extract flavors and textures, but just how much? Depends. The same can be said for stem-inclusion as well as even botrytis (they have a chart on their website which shows how much this factor varies from vintage to vintage). Lastly, they prefer to use large oak vats and barrels for aging, which seems to give the wines enough relaxation to easily find your way into their swirling complexities.

Damijan Podversic “Nekaj” Collio Friulano

I awarded the 2021 vintage of this wine top honors in the Top 12 Wines of 2025 article, but have also tasted the wine with seven years of age to track its story-arch. “Nekaj” usually has a sense of salinity to it, which gives the wine fabulous persistence on the palate. Expect a radiant color, and explosive aromas. Tamara: “if you find a Friulano that is not aromatic, something is wrong."

Damijan Podversic Collio Malvasia Riserva

From vineyards located on Monte Calvario, this Malvasia Istriana is the best one I’ve encountered from the region because it balances the grape’s tendency for high alcohol as elegantly as one could possibly expect. I remember telling Tamara that I normally don’t care for Collio’s Malvasia Istriana wines. “I find them a bit exhausting,” I told her, and she seemed momentarily devastated by the sentiment. She loves Malvasia’s durability in the vineyard, and how the grape berries self-heal with tiny spots of botrytis that enhance the character. “She tends to be exotic,” she said of its flavors, “but not overly aromatic like the other 18 (or so) Malvasia in Italy.” Expect musings of the tropics while tasting this artful and surprisingly delicate wine.

Damijan Podversic “Kaplja” Collio Bianco

I included this wine as one of the 100 Wines to Admire in my book, Opening a Bottle: Italy. It is a beautiful example of how memory can lead you astray. My first encounter with the wine was at a Slow Wine Denver event, where I also tasted the Ribolla. Years later, while concluding a wine trip with a friend at Fiesole’s Coquinarius outside Florence, there it was on the wine menu: an aged “Kaplja,” which thrilled us throughout the meal. My notes from that encounter — about texture, acidity and the violet-and-burnt sugar aromas — had me recalling an orange wine in its prime. And so, I erroneously filed it under “orange wines” in the book, and me and my editors missed the mistake.

This is a richly-colored white wine, but it is made from the trio of Friulano, Malvasia and Chardonnay with an extensive maceration of 60 to 90 days in large oak barrels. A macerated white wine? Yes, just like the Ribolla below. But I made a point of organizing the 100 Wines to Admire by color. To quote Homer Simpson: “Doh."

Either way, revisiting this wine on my last trip to Collio was not only humbling, but just as thrilling as that night at Coquinarius. Yes, there are aromatic traits that can be tied to that extended maceration, but it is the supreme persistence of this elegant, generous and potent wine that lingers most. Expect a faint touch of baking spice sensation with a few sips.

Damijan Podversic Collio Ribolla Gialla

Unlike Etna, which has Carricante, or Castelli di Jesi, which has Verdicchio, Collio does not have a truly dominant grape. But if you recall the old “Most Interesting Man in the World” campaign for Dos Equis beer, then you have a pretty good image of who Ribolla Gialla is in these parts. When allowed to macerate for an extended period, the grape can yield an orange-hued wine that rivals any in the world for aromatic pleasure. And Podversic makes what I think is the most well-rounded and elegant there is. The difference lies in the tannins, which are exceedingly fine and polished, even when tasted from the tank, as I have done. This is a wine that requires good stemware: anything less would be like skimming a great novel.