Milan Nestarec - OKR - 1 liter - 2024 - 12% - regio Moravia
Ochre Ochre, Burning Bright / In the Forests of the Night
The 2024 vintage was impacted by spring frosts right from the start, resulting in a smaller yield and an occasional uneven ripening. During flowering, there was a period of rain followed by a long period of drought and extreme temperatures. This contributed to an unusually early harvest, beginning mid-August – the harvest was done mid-September, by the time we’d normally start. Thanks to careful vineyard and canopy management and quick pickers – shout out to these hardbodies who managed to do it in temperatures reaching high-30s day after day – we managed to get grapes with relatively low potential alcohol but good extract. We worked quickly, I bet mostly on pressing whole bunches, and the wines ultimately proved my hunch right, the wines are delicate, but well-structured.
Although much less infatuated with “amber” wines than I once was, I still enjoy a well-made macerated white from time to time. Adding a skin-contact sibling to our liter-bottle range was a no-brainer, just as drinkable and easy-going as Běl, Nach and Růž. No hardcore tannins or long macerations, but rather a fine skin contact wine with great energy, distinguished aromatics, and only a hint of the “orangey” character. The blend features an important part of Gruner Veltliner, our signature white grape that’s greatly adapted to Bilovice conditions. Brand new label by our designer Klára Zápotocká (desetdeka.design) that emphasises the wine’s simplicity, purity and everyday vibe. Okurrrr? (Well, the name actually means “ochre” in Czech, inspired by the wine’s colour like all its liter siblings, but this famous phrase is quite fitting...)
Grape varieties Gruner Veltliner, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Gewurztraminer, Pálava
Region Moravia
Subregion Velkopavlovická
Village Velké Bílovice & Moravský Žižkov
Vineyard Blend of different plots
Aspect South-west and south
Average altitude 210–225 m ASL
Slope 7–14%
Soil Loess and sand
Farming Organic (certified by ABCERT)
Age of vines 7–23 years old
Vineyard size 2 ha
Training system Guyot
Density of plantation 2.2 x 1.0 m and 2.0 x 0.9 m
Yield 31 hl/ha
Harvest August 24, 2024
Vinification Classic fermentation with 100% stems in, uncrushed grapes, gentle remontages
Pressing Free run juice only
Fermentation Spontaneous, stainless steel and wood. On skins and stems for 3–5 days.
Ageing Stainless steel + Wood
Fining No
Filtration No
Sulfur addition 4 ppm before bottling
Bottling April 2025
Lot number Okr24
Alcohol by volume 12.0 %
Acids 6.9 g/l
Residual sugar 0.1 g/l
Bottle 1.0 l Vetropack Green
Closure Crown cap
Serving temperature 12 –14 °C
Our wines have been gradually shifting towards less skin contact and more nuance – we use shorter and shorter maceration times and a much smaller proportion of skin-contact wine in the final blends than before. But I still like to enjoy a well-made skin-contact wine from time to time (especially when they come from my beloved Collio / Brda area).
In short, skin contact wines still have their place in my heart and cellar, and creating an amber brother to our dear Běl & Nach liters was kind of a no-brainer. All these salt-of-the-earth fellas share the same “everyday easy drinking” vibe. This means no hardcore tannins or long macerations, but rather a fine, normal skin-contact wine with great energy, distinguished aromatics, and only a hint of the “orangey” character. (Full disclosure: I'm not a huge fan of the term orange wine or its ubiquity.) Okr is vivid, fun, and just enough talkative for it to be the best of companions.
We chose to name it Okr (ochre in Czech) not only because it follows the concise, colour-themed concept of its siblings Běl and Nach, but also because ochre is a natural pigment with a long history of use by humans – pieces of the material engraved with abstract designs have been found in South Africa and dated to around 75,000 years ago. And ochre literally is earth, precisely a mixture of ferric oxide and varying amounts of clay and sand, with colours ranging from yellow to orange or amber. Voilá the perfect symbol for where the wine comes from, and which hues & glints you can expect in your glass...
The 2024 vintage brings a bit of a makeover, as you see. This time, the change is not coming from me, the eternal tweaker, but from a bottle shortage: the production of the previously used “plumpie” was discontinued so we had no option but to find another pretty liter bottles (no small feat, btw). Together with our long-term designer collaborator Klára Zápotocká we then also created a new future for the label – a minimalist black and white affair that emphasises the wines’ signature simplicity, purity and everyday vibe. (We kept the liter volume, of course, as it's an important part of Moravian wine heritage. Or you can call it “minimagnum”, like my Montréal friends.)