2023 Welschriesling

Up until now, we’ve only tackled their macerated white wines. Partly because we were so blown away by them and also because we didn’t have anything else like them from Slovakia. On our last visit however, Gábor mentioned that many of their OIaszrizling clones came from Fanni and Gábor Karner in the Matra. These are the smaller berries, thick skins, aromatic, and with high acidity. He then made some Asparagus risotto with duck breast reduced down with said fresh Olaszrizling for lunch. They grow the Olaszrizling in the same location as the Dunaj, picked in October, one day of maceration followed by 10 months in barrel and with a little bottle age as well. This has near red wine levels of dry extract despite no maceration. It’s rich, dry, and weighty and flavorful without needing wood, battonage or residual sugar.