My first non-vintage wine and a tribute to the wonderfully stubborn Gruner Veltliner from my home turf Velké Bílovice - no matter what you do with it in the cellar, its personality somehow shines through. This one comes from our plot called Zadní Hora, and the winemaking is very old school: first, a short skin-contact, because when you harvest until late afternoon, you're too tired to press it right away the same night, so you leave it for the morning after. The enzymes from the pulp start working the skin in the meantime so at least it's easier to press; then, you put the must in an acacia vat, let it ferment without doing anything save some topping up, and then bottle it. The way our elders did it when I was a kiddo.
Historically, it was common in Moravia that every grape had its dedicated barrel in the cellar - Veltlín would always go to the same cask that housed it for the last 30 years. So I went back to this method: you have a barrel with Veltliner 2017, during the 2018 harvest you take half of it out and fill it with the fresh must of 2018. 2019, here we go again: take half out, fill up with the freshman of 2019. Nestarec system of solera. And then comes the day when you need some fun for your upcoming webshop, so you taste, confirm that the right "Veltlín from Bílovice" accent is there and send it out to the world. It sports 10% alc. only - no residual sugar of course, we picked this quite early to see what happens. I don't like high-alcohol content, I believe that wine's structure and mouthfeel should come from the right work in the vineyard, not from an overpowering ABV.
The label comes from my favourite artist of all times - my wife Mirka: Tasting this Gruner Veltliner has the same magic like an infusion made with herbs collected on the Midsummer's night: plantain leaves, linden flowers, deadnettle, St John's wort, elderflower… They say these are the most powerful ones. Linocut, June 2020.
Wanna drink this? This limited edition is right now available here in my eshop.
