Milan Nestarec - JIL - 2019 - Jung Field Blend

You have to pick the places you don't walk away from

“Frankovka” doesn't come easy to me. Neither to make it nor to talk about it. It comes from within, speaks softly, considering every word. Gives me hope yet doesn't make my life any easier. It's like the finest perfume: it moves you, but it's ever elusive, you have to focus in order to capture it. A love at second sight, like circling around each other in a slow tango, wondering if you're made for each other. That's why we've released so few pure Blaufrankisch wines so far - until now.

This one is from a beautiful, balanced south-oriented vineyard called Jung. A 2-hectare plot in Moravský Žižkov, with vines up to 35 years old and quite low yields (20 hl/ha, compared to the 100hl allowed in the area). I watched the spot for a while until one glorious day I could finally make it mine.

JIL is quite the character, full of desire and rebelliousness, but also hope. The fusion of souls. Wine at the beginning of its journey – and boy, do I look forward to seeing where this road takes us…

The name is actually inspired by the Czech word for clay, jíl, but you can put all sorts of meanings (and winegrower's mental states, haha) in it: Jung Is Love, Jumping In Luxury, Just Incredibly Lush, Jeeesus I'm Lucky, Jeeesus I'm Lost, Joyful–Intense–Layered...

The story behind the White Label

I'm 200% positive that the most important thing is the person who makes the wine. It’s not about a varietal, or a famous village in a famous region - because even those wines can get the bad karma of being massacred in the cellar. It's all about the name on the bottle. A name you can trust, because you know how the winemaker works and that it's a style you enjoy. Hence the Nestarec white label, with my signature on it. (A tad prettier than IRL because my usual scribble is unreadable.) Together with Tereza, my graphic designer, we started taking out elements that weren’t essential - until only “Nestarec” and the name of the wine remained. A purist approach to both what's in the bottle and on it. Because, as they say, perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.

I don't wanna look like a natural-born sage - it took me some time to get there. My journey, like many others, has been paved with gold engravings and curlicues, like on a fancy tombstone. “Nestarec, a wine for funerals”, as a friend of mine dubbed it back then. Oops. But I remember that period fondly - it's a part of my evolution. No regrets, like in that famous Edith Piaf song.

From 2018 onwards, all the White Label wines are field blends of old vines grown on a single vineyard (or two neighboring plots). We chose our top vineyards to endow the wines with maximum longevity & genius loci, and use minimum skin contact (10% max and even that very rarely), in order to showcase this unique, beautiful material without a heavy orange-styled veil. Spontaneous fermentation with indigenous yeast in bigger old barrel from local oak or acacia wood, where it then lays undisturbed for ~2 years on its fine lees. No fining or filtration, no sulfur addition. The normal way, simply put.

From 2018 onwards, all the White Label wines are field blends of old vines grown on a single vineyard (or two neighboring plots). We chose our top vineyards to endow the wines with maximum longevity & genius loci, and use minimum skin contact (10% max and even that very rarely), in order to showcase this unique, beautiful material without a heavy orange-styled veil. Spontaneous fermentation with indigenous yeast in bigger old barrel from local oak or acacia wood, where it then lays undisturbed for ~2 years on its fine lees. No fining or filtration, no sulfur addition. The normal way, simply put.