Milan Nestarec - Nach 2023 Czech Republic 1L (12.5% ABV)
WINE CLUB SELECTION - 2023 VINTAGE - JAN 2025 W.C.
from Milan, winemaker:
"Moravia, my home, has the perfect conditions for making light-bodied, fun reds with good acidity. This unpretentious "rural realness" used to be the traditional style here, and I’ve been drinking and loving wines like this since I was a kid. Obviously, our region also had to go through the craze of new oak barrels, de-acidifiers, tannins and all the other BS covering the sense of place in our wines, when the Czech Republic opened its borders after 1989. But I wanted to put the normal, juicy Moravian red, based on our signature Blaufrankisch grape, back in the spotlight. So voila Nach, named after its colour (= purple in Czech)....
To make it really "ours", the label is now a linocut made by my dear wife Mirka, and we found a cute plump bottle whose shape and crown cap transport me right to my childhood when we used to buy beer or juice in such containers. We kept the liter volume, of course, as it's an important part of Moravian wine heritage. Or you can call it “mini-magnum”, like my Montréal friends do." The bottle design is meant to pay homage to a field worker's bottle.
2023 vintage info:
Slightly late spring, high temperatures and sufficient rainfall during the growing season had a favourable effect on the growth and maturing. The crop was very good, but strong perenospora attack during flowering took the yields down 10—15%. At the end of the day though it had a positive effect on the quality of the wines. We started
the harvest about 14 days earlier than most local winemakers, for lower alcohol and better acidity. It took us a total of 6 weeks as we still harvest everything by hand,
so one needs to plan carefully in order to get the maturity right in all plots. The fermentations went much better compared to the 2022 vintage, all wines cleared and finished pretty quickly. We processed all the reds as whole bunches, the whites with cca 15% stems. with the trefoil. After fermentation, quite a bit of acidity fell out in the
form of tartar. A good vintage overall
Moravia
Subregion - Velkopavlovická
Village - Velké Bílovice & Moravský Žižkov
Vineyard Blend of different plots
Aspect - South
Average altitude 205—215 m ASL
Slope 5—12%
Soil - Clay
Farming Organic (certified by ABCERT)
Age of vines 6—22 years old
Vineyard size 1.8 ha
Training system Guyot
Density of plantation 2.2 x 1.0 m and 2.0 x 0.9 m
Yield 40 hl/ha
Harvest By hand, October 4, 2023
Vinification Classic fermentation with 100% stems
in, gentle remontages
Pressing Free run juice only
Fermentation Spontaneous, stainless steel and wood
Ageing Stainless steel + wood
Fining No
Filtration No
Sulfur addition 2 mg/l at bottling
Bottling March 2024
Lot number Nach23
The first vines that the Nestarec family started to work with grew on a tiny plot that was returned to them as restitution in the early 1990s. The winery went professional in 2001. Milan’s father Milan Nestarec Sr. entrusted him with all the winemaking when Milan was barely 16 years old. The vineyards and cellar switched to organic and low intervention in late 2008, inspired by Milan’s multiple encounters with natural winemakers at home and abroad. The current focus of the winery is to go to great lengths to care for old vineyards and keep the energy in the bottle. Milan is a real lover of Jura, fire-roasted sausages, and exchanges of ideas.
“Nach” is old Czech for “purple” and that's exactly what you get with this fruit-driven, smashable Blaufränkisch/Pinot Noir blend. Nestarec is one of the most talented Central European winemakers of his generation, whose wines are bursting with energy and respect to terroir even in the everyday incarnations like this one.
Impeccably made chillable, savory, earthy old world red in a Liter! All your wishes have come true! Light, fresh, juicy, tart cherries, raspberries, forest floor, black pepper, thyme, hint of smoke and a rustic green/stemmy bite.
region: Moravia, Czech Republic (south-east Czech hills)
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Milan+Nestarec/@48.834183,12.4406018,6z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x4712d67a47b85bff:0x5a5c0aa2ca894bdf!8m2!3d48.841219!4d16.9070253?hl=en
varietal: Pinot Noir, Blaufrankisch
style: red
farming & cellar:
Soil: Loess, clay, sand Estate-owned,
awaiting organic certification (practiced since 2008), regenerative agriculture, manual harvest, de-stemmed, wild yeast fermentation without temperature control, gentle maceration for a few weeks in steel, rests in the same vessels for about 8 months until the following spring. Bottled unfined, unfiltered, unsulfured.
pairing: sausages naturally