Milan Nestarec Nach Red 2021 1lt

From the winemaker, Milan Nestarec, on the 2021 vintage: The slowest harvest I  remember, with a  big surprise at the end. Due to cold spring, the bud break came 2 weeks later than usually, a delay that the vines didn’t catch up. Plenty of rainfall throughout the year, a lot of fungal disease pressure. End of August looked grim – the grapes had 15 g/l of acids, no sugar or signs of ripening. But, come mid-September, the weather suddenly made a 180-degree turn and the sun shone until the end of October. We usually pick fast, as all the grapes ripen mostly around the same time. In 2021, however, everything ripened gradually, and some days we even nervously sat around without anything to harvest. On the flip side, we had time to bring the bunches to perfection. Especially the late varieties brought us well-deserved satisfaction–I  have never seen more beautiful grapes of Blaufrankisch. Excellent vintage, after all.

And on the wine:

I’ve been drinking the typical rural Moravian red since I was a kid – before the arrival of new oak barrels, de-acidifiers, tannins and all the other BS covering the light, bright, drinkable character native to our local wines. I wanted to put the classic juicy Moravian red back in the spotlight, so voila Nach! Named after its colour (= purple in Czech) and served in a healthy measure of one litre, because this is the kind of wine you can drink even without moderation…