An unplanned field blend - aka when you want to plant a plot of Blaufrankisch but the vines you ordered somewhere from the East sport only a 40% of BF and the rest is a medley of Welschriesling, Fetească regală and white table grapes. True story - happened to us in 2003 when we were planting a piece of the Slovenské vineyard. Now we pick it all together and ferment it with skins - hashtag co-ferment - for 3 weeks in an open vat, ie. quite long in our book. A bit of foot stomp in the beginning, then not much else. Maybe because we're not disciplined enough, maybe because it's not really that important to punch down, maybe we don't have the time.
Maybe this slight “imprecision” gets reflected in our wines. But I do love putting white and red grapes together, resulting in a light-bodied half-red resisting all classification, like that famous cute Czech story for kids about Kitty and Doggie making a cake (they put all sorts of things in it; the result wasn't a happy end but rest assured that mine is) It makes you realize even more that the variety used isn't essential. You stop looking for something familiar in the wine, you stop trying to make it look like sth else. Starting from scratch. Just you and the wine, no influence, no prejudice. Which, btw is the main reason why I stopped putting grapes on my labels altogether - letting each of you find your own path.
The name was provided by the cult German band Einstürzende Neubauten, specifically their compellingly dark song Sabrina, and the label by the skilled Czech typeface designer Petra Dočekalová - I'm fascinated by the power of typeface and lettering to shape the way a certain thing makes you feel, and Petra is great in this. As she says herself:
Creating lettering for a label of wine that nobody hasn't tasted yet? A challenge that must be accepted! I wanted to emphasise Milan's pioneering spirit, his intuition and passion for wine - qualities that make him able to think and make things out of the box. Hence the dynamic, freely written script, like when you want to quickly record the first impressions because you want to keep them in your memory as long as possible. Handwritten 1:1 with an ink fountain pen and red felt-tip marker.
Wanna drink this? This limited edition is right now available here in my eshop.
