2017 Roka Blaufrankisch

This was the first vintage from their own, very young Blaufränkisch/Modra Frankinja vines. Quite a lean, tough vintage. Organically farmed vineyard, hand-picked, spontaneous fermentation with minimal intervention. Aged in French oak. Good perfume – almost Chinon-like. Lean and nervy, inky and slightly skinny black-cherry fruit in a sheath of herbs. Wiry and a little dry. Dark minerals. The vineyard has a lot of potential but you can taste that this is very young fruit. (TC)

Picked 25 September. Tough vintage, especially for their very young vines (five years old). Fermented in three fermenters: two Slavonian oak, 500-litre open vats and an open 500-litre resin cubic tank. Has a tiny bit of Laški added to it (3%), just after fermentation, in order to top the barrels up. Aged in one new 500-litre Stockinger and one second-use barrel – previously they used one new barrel and one first-use barrel but felt that was a little too much, the fruit was too black. Total SO2 is 20 mg/l. Very closed on the nose (it was more open last year when we tasted it before bottling). Starts pointed and very tightly paced, compact. Tense shoulders, the tannins are a bit harder than 2018, not as supple. Acidity is super-fresh through blackcurrant fruit and blackcurrant bud. Carries a cool graphite line. River rocks. It’s moss under stones in the banks of a shady forest river, the scent under ferns and bracken and cold stones and shadows and cool and earth and years of humus and leaves and mushrooms. Tomato leaf on a drawstring finish. Needs another year in bottle. (TC)