Milan Nestarec - Danger 770 Volts -2021 - regio Moravia
Dangerously drinkable. Approach at your own risk.
One of our most beloved wines, a salty-citrus-exotic sparkler born in 2017. Always with wonderful energy, as the name suggests.
We always make it from the same single vineyard, our sandy plot called Sahary, so it's a field blend of Neuburger (for personality), Muller (for quantity – that warning on the back label ain't there for nothing, it drinks veeery easily and we need to make enough of it), and Muscat (for some out-of-this-world tropical oomph).
The 2021 marks a new, disgorged era for this electric wine. I recently realised that I've been enjoying the first, clean sips of Danger more than the yeasty last ones. Also, we changed our pressing system to a slower, gentler one, which means our musts are a bit more turbid. So I decided, after 5 undisgorged editions, to gently disgorge the lees in this one. Worry not, it's still kinda cloudy. But the bubbles are more structured, and well-behaved. We've never really called this wine a pet-nat anyways, it's a wine made with the same amount of care as our other cuvées, and we want to bring it to you with even more artisanship and precision than before. The 2021 vintage is also superbly aromatic, as the Muscat woke up from its past sleep and blessed us with a bountiful and beautiful crop.
Another new addition to the '21 vintage is magnuuum size! The "volts" have become one of our flagships – it's evolved, I'm giving it my full attention and it deserves a bigger bottle with a double dose of energy. The contents are the same as in 750ml bottles, just spent longer on the lees before disgorgement. More volume, more energy, more elegance, better-integrated bubbles. (Hence the joke with the 770V name - you not only get 2x 380V, but a little extra.)
A bit of history: the first time I tried to make sparkling wine in 2012, I bottled it with too much residual sugar and my warehouse became a military zone, with bottles randomly exploding here and there. 5000 of them. (You know, most people, when doing something new, start with a small batch. Like, maybe, 30 bottles. Well, not me. Or you can also have the wine analysed before bottling. Well, not me. Back then, my French importer Fleur just dryly asked whether we even have labs in Moravia or not.)
It took me a bit of time to digest the fact that all this wine and work had gone down the drain, but I eventually got over it and tried again. Fast forward to spring 2017: we're tasting my second iteration with my wife and it is... freaking awesome! So refreshing, so energetic. Totally fulfilling my wish of capturing the unique young, invigorating energy that wine has during its fermentation. This is such a huge deal to me. Sometimes I wonder if I might have been an electrician in one of my previous lives.
As we were drinking this electrifying wine, right next to us, no kidding, stood an electric transformer adorned with that notorious “Danger 380V” sign. And bang! The name & label were born in a sec.