Podfuck

Walk up to your own horizon

There are grapes like Gruner Veltliner, Riesling or Neuburger, full of character. And then there's Pinot Gris. I always found it rather bland, boring, and lacking personality when compared to my aforementioned darlings, and didn't understand the PG craze. I guess people are sometimes happy to drink wine without having to think about it–but I always wanted more.

But we had some Grigio planted on our 0.5 hectare Zadní Hora plot, our very first vineyard. My grandparents used to own some land there so we got it back during the 1990's restitution. It was planted in 1988, my birth year. Hence my soft spot for this plot. It used to be planted with Blaufrankisch, but in 1987 our village was hit with some severe frosts that killed most of the vines. I have no idea why the socialist cooperative decided to replant this plot with Pinot Gris instead of BF back then; did they need it in their range of wines? Or just randomly picked it? Was it the only thing available? Either way, a great choice for the vineyard.

But that's actually only the beginning of this wine's story. Up until the 2017 vintage, this wine used to be a 100% skin contact. Originally very long, like 3 months, but every year we’ve made it shorter and shorter - the 2017 wine only macerated for about a week, as our taste shifted towards elegance and balance. We also added a tiny bit of Pinot Noir from the same spot (pure loess, South-West orientation) - I love the noblesse this tiny - erm, cheat - brings to the wine.

I loved this addition so much that–surprise surprise–the Podfuck 2018 has switched sides and it's time to call it what it is: a bloody great red! Roughly 60% Pinot Noir, 20% Blaufränkisch, 20% Pinot Gris who works as a diplomatic bridge between the PN and BF (aka the PN of the East, they say). All from our almost neighboring plots Zadní and Otáhal, picked and fermented together. The full cheating circle, you might say; but I actually see it as a continuity of this wine's story, a story of searching for elegance despite all my imperfections. Nestarec wabi-sabi. And I can't be happier with it - not another macerated PG that the world already has a lot of, but a unique red-white blend that wonderfully mirrors our Bílovice loess.

Hence the tagline: "Walk up to your own horizon" comes from an interview with the renowned artist Olafur Eliasson. I love how it reminds us that we don't need to be like anybody else or conform to others' norms. In wine as in life, we set our own KPIs...

for more info: https://www.nestarec.cz/podfuck