Milan Nestarec – Umami 2019

Some things are born in perfect circumstances, some by accident, some out of necessity. UMAMI is the latter: I love food. Anything connected to food. Talking about food. I might actually talk more about food than I do about wine. But wine is actually food so all good I guess. Anyways, I adore Asian fare. Especially paired with a distinctly aromatic wine. One of those food-wine pairings that blow your mind and make you understand that sometimes 1 + 1 equals 3 and that wine and food go together like love and marriage (ugh .. whatever). So I had to create my own umami.

I did so in 2017, creating a tasty blend of grapes from our Babušák, Stará Hora and Sahary plots. Based on the fragrant Gewurztraminer and Pálava varietals. Electrified by Riesling and multiplied by Muller-Thurgau to serve all you thirsty people out there who share my view. Technique-wise blend as well: some skin contact, some carb mac, some direct press. A fair share. UMAMI loosely translates from Japanese as tasty, delicate. I can't utter a word of that language, but after tasting this wine I feel like I've translated it pretty well.

In 2018, I started to make the White Label wines a bit differently, as field blends of old vines grown on a single vineyard (or two neighboring plots). We chose our top vineyards to endow the wines with maximum longevity & genius loci, and use minimum skin contact (10% max and even that very rarely), in order to showcase this unique, beautiful material without a heavy orange-styled veil.

in 2019 was a bliss for us in Bilovice. More or less stable weather, “normal” rainfall and temperatures. No hail, plenty of sunshine, enough water during ripening. We had 20–30 % fewer grapes per plant than usual, probably due to previously high yields and rain during flowering. The balanced weather meant we didn't need to work the soil at all, which, together with leaf management carefully tailored to the needs of each site, kept the pH in good balance. Not removing the apex let the vines grow naturally, their biochemical processes undisturbed, so the grapes ripened harmoniously. Also, the difference of day and night temperatures brought excellent acid structure and slower ripening. This allowed us to take our time and be as precise and focused during the harvest as possible, with hand-sorting as well as significantly longer pressing times. Overall 2019 was a lovely, balanced and mindful vintage, a great relief after the hot and over-generous 2018.

In this case, it's our Slovenské vineyard, thanks to my tipsy father who once mistakenly planted Riesling right next to older Traminer vines there, which is actually an old trick that simply works (the grape combination, not planting vines under influence). Spontaneous fermentation with indigenous yeast in bigger old barrel from local oak or acacia wood, where it then lays undisturbed for ~ 2 years on its fine lees. No fining or filtration, no sulfur addition. The normal way, simply put.