Vina Herzanovi - Gruner Veltliner Veltlinske Zelene (Black Label) 2021 750ml (12.5% ABV)

Czech Gruner! what else do you need to know?

(despite the bit of skin contact - this is a clean expression of Gruner - not an orange wine)

• Jakub and wife Sandra are both trained winemakers who met while studying at the winemaking college in the nearby Lednice
• The trio are strong believers in biodynamics and count among the founders of the Czecho-Slovak Demeter group  

“Well, I guess most of the locals think we’re the weird ones,” laughs Jakub Herzán when asked about how many natural winemakers besides them you’d find in Kobylí (one, to be precise). Similar to their fellows from the Dlúhé Grefty winery-  Jakub, his wife and fellow winemaker Sandra and his sister Zuzana are a stubborn natural wine “island” in a village otherwise dominated by a huge conventional winery. And just like Jara Tesařík in the nearby village of Mutěnice, their approach (and beautiful wines!) speak of dedication to respectful winemaking....

The trio works with 4.3 hectares of vineyards planted by Jakub’s father from 1997 onwards, all pretty much on the same south-oriented hill with fertile black soil on loess. Jakub and his sister Zuzana took over the estate in 2012. Jakub had only just begun studying winemaking college back then and had quite a lot to take in at once; but, led by his innate belief in environmental sustainability and influenced by the natural wine movement that many of his classmates became part of as well, he gradually landed on his feet and started to make wine in a more and more natural way, both in the vineyard and in the cellar located under the family house. 

The winemaking is really minimal—the wines ferment solely with indigenous yeasts

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pineapple, ripe apples, green leafy herbs, Meyer lemon, pleasantly peppery, stony minerality, hints of smoky gun flint, bracing acidity

The grapes were harvested by hand. 15% spent 9 months on skins in qvevri, 25% fermented in stainless steel tanks (few hours of maceration in the beginning), and 60% fermented in older (5th use) French oak barriques. Bottled with a little bit of sulfur (total sulfur in bottle 38ppm).

100% Veltlínské Zelené (aka Grüner Veltliner)

prac org & biodynamic 13-23 year old vines, soil is loess with sand and humus

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