Dear Friend,
who read these lines, we are glad you have found us! We wanted to write this letter because our wines from 2019 might have raised some questions, as those are different from the usual: they were bottled without filtration, clarification or any additional sulphur. They have a different taste, and they swirl in the glass differently, their look is unusual, but let’s not rush so far!
When we made our first wine in 2016, we already knew that we wanted to apply an ecological approach to the grapes and in our vinery, we wanted to work with spontaneous fermentation. May winemakers use yeasts, nutrients and enzymes to control fermentation and the development of their wines. This is not a problem, a sin or a mistake! This is a different technology, a different approach. We believe in Irvin D. Yalom’s saying that “living safely is dangerous”, therefore we try to do our best when it comes to our tasks in the grapes, at harvest, but we do not dare to intervene any further, we let the Invisible One intervene in the development of our wines.
After many friendly discussions, tastings and learnings, we started to believe that it is really possible to make wine without sulphur. And these wines have become our reference points, because we feel that they are so much more expressive, they can really show their richness that we see in the grapes, in the soil, we feel in the lees. We have fallen in love with natural wines.
We are still learning the process, and we are trying to understand wines and grapes, and we are grateful to God for coming across this approach. The challenge is bigger than we thought. It is more difficult to make these wines properly than we thought. But it makes our work more inspiring! Our work comes with much effort, precise cultivation and great trust, but sometimes with mistakes as well…
Natural wines are the unfiltered, unclarified wines without additional sulphur (30 mg/litre is the maximum limit of sulphur that can be added right before bottling) from ecological vineries.
You can ripen the wine if you wish so. Contrary to what some people claim, natural wines do not go bad or sour, etc. However, after opening a bottle, it should be left for a long time, because, based on our experience, it can last for two or three days after opening. We do not like to drink it too cold, because it makes the wine closed. As wine is aging in barrels, it likes to breathe, so we should let aerate it for 10-15 minutes in a glass or in the decanter before tasting.
We hope that you will find so much pleasure in our wines as we love Somló, the grapes and natural wines.
