A very lightly oaked, fresh style of Blatina, showing its pretty black cherry fruit and lip smacking acids. There are some subtle herbal, savoury aromas on the nose – a little bit of development, which adds some depth to what would otherwise be a fairly simple, youthful style. Nicely done and a great introduction to
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Škegro – Carsus Blatina 2015
Blatina is one of Herzegovina’s only indigenous red grape varieties. It’s a delicate and charming creature, and absolutely does not deserve to be smothered in oak as it is here. I can just about tell that there is some nice acidity, but the fruit character is totally hidden, which is a great shame. Škegro’s regular
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Jan Matthias Klein – Kiss Kiss Maddie’s Lips (Purple Rain Edition) 2018
A roughly disgorged ‘pet nat’ style (natural fermentation completed in the bottle) from 100% Regent. Very deep, and indeed purple colour, still with some fine lees and sediment. Very lively, fresh crunchy fruit with a subtle earthiness. Youthful and fun, nothing that needs serious thought but a great natural glugger with refreshingly modest alcohol. A
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Jan Matthias Klein – Sam Jan Guy 2018
Another collaboration from Jan Matthias, this time with visiting Aussie winemaker Sam Guy Renzaglia. Riesling with 72 hours of pre-fermentation cold soak, and then the lees and the juice were separated. The lees were fermented in demi-johns and then added back to the juice later. Herbal and a bit developed on the nose – ie:
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Jan Matthias Klein – Papa Panda’s Rising 2018
This is a new collaboration from Jan Matthias – The Mosel’s reigning natural wine king! Both he and Polish winemaker colleague (and neighbour – also in Mosel) Andrzej Greszta each fermented a foudre of Riesling, with no additions and allowing malolactic to take place. The end results were blended together and this is the wine.
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Škegro – Krš Orange Žilavka 2017
One of only two orange wines made in Bosnia-Herzegovina, at least as far as I know. Bariša Škegro’s 2015 orange (first vintage of this wine, reviewed here) was an enjoyable rustic style, but this 2017 really steps up a notch. Initially a bit tight and marmite-like on the nose, it needs a bit of oxygen
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Jan Matthias Klein – Orange Utan 2018
Jan’s first try at a “proper” orange wine (Little Bastard has always had a small percentage of skin fermented in the blend). It didn’t entirely convince me. The one third of Gelber Muskateller (AKA Yellow Muscat) doesn’t really make its presence known – that wonderful aromatic lift is missing. There are some subtle spicy aromas,
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Jan Matthias Klein – Little Red Riding Wolf 2018
This unfiltered, no added sulphites Pinot Noir is a fascinating comparison with Jan’s more “classic” Pinot (bottled under the Staffelter Hof label). Here the aromas are way more earthy and even a touch feral (I would hesitate to say bretty, I don’t think this is), but the palate is really clean and lively, with wild
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Jan Matthias Klein – Little Bastard 2018
Originally conceived as a cheaper, more easygoing companion to “Madcap Magnus”, Jan’s first foray into natural winemaking, this blend has taken off in its own right. Superbly lively and a little bit spritzy straight out of the bottle. You can feel the acid kick of the Riesling, but there is texture too – half the
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Is orange wine really an ‘assault on pleasure’?
Simon takes Troy Patterson to task for asserting that orange wines are an assault on pleasure.