LILI & CRUX: Nestarec X LDBB Take Three

Pictures courtesy of Zdeněk Oudes a Jack Aden Stevens, LDBB

Zdeněk Oudes, the general manager of La Dégustation, who is also in charge of their wine list and personally selected the wines in our cellar, chose two new single-barrel, single vineyard cuvées: an elegant Gruner called LILI and an iron-rich Blaufrankisch CRUX. (You can read more about their predecessors here.)

Thanks to Zdeněk, I am happy to be able to realise the unique stories of these interesting vineyards in such an individual way, without compromise.

Or are they only interesting to me because I am in these locations on a daily basis? I know them, I know how they make me feel, and it influences me. I relentlessly search for every available piece of the puzzle to learn as much as I can about the sites and the people who worked there before me. It makes it much easier for me to exist with and relate to that wine. I can understand it, forgive it, but also be tough on it when I need to be.

Thank you for this privilege.

LILI 2022

The 2022 vintage was a bit of a Cinderella – a colder vintage that is only now showing its qualities after a few years in barrels. After the warm 2023 and even hotter 2024, it's like tasting wines from a vintage 10 years ago. These wines remind me most of the 2012 and 2017 vintages. The wines from those also needed time, they were not expressive in the first years after harvest, they were quieter but much more linear.

My obsession with Veltliner and Frankovka over the years has led us to vinify all the parcels, micro sites, parts of the hillside, different vine ages etc separately. LILI is a vineyard named after its previous owner, as is our custom. We do it not only because it is easy, but mainly that we see the previous owners as part of their story, which we do not want to forget.

LILI can also symbolise tenderness, beauty and purity of the eponymous flower, which I find fits well with the new approach to Veltliner that you will discover in this wine. I like me a full circle.

The vineyard is located on a gentle northern slope in Velké Bílovice, looking northeast towards Čejkovice to be exact. Planting of Veltliner in the early 1980s with a 3 x 1 meter density of vines. Still in good enough condition.

Vines grow there on loess, which is not covered by any black humic topsoil due to wind erosion in the past. It is a 'dust loess' which contains very little clay, so it is not as water-retentive and is more arid than other sites. This may be reflected in the pH and theoretically lower acids, but here the soil's influence is perfectly compensated for by the northern orientation of the vineyard: we usually get 1.5-2.0 g/l more acid than on the opposite southern slope.

The vineyard is close to a body of water and is often covered in fog at harvest time, which is why we pick it before botrytis or other capricious fungi attack it. In the case of this wine, we are not looking for noble rot, which can possibly develop on Veltliner as well. It's simply an interesting, specific site, just the way we geeks like it.

In the cellar, we followed a gentle and classical method: the whole grapes were crushed by foot and macerated with stems until the next day, when they go to the press and are pressed very slowly. We rack the must directly into a barrel, in this case a single, older acacia one, containing 600 litres. It lay on full sediment until bottling, with very irregular top-ups, but a full flor never developed in this cask.

Zdeněk: "We chose Lili for several reasons. The first was purely subjective impression – the smell and taste. It was the first time Milan gave me the opportunity to test wines blind, without any prior influence. I did point to a sample of Riesling at first, but the next time around I stuck with Lili and hasn't moved since. Once we got to more detailed information, it just confirmed for me that Gruner Veltliner simply makes sense here - origin-, personality- and vinification wise."

CRUX 2022

This one grows in Žižkov, our second village, about 3.5 km as the crow flies from the LILI vineyard. Different conditions, different soil, windier location. My obsession with Frankovka.

The soil there is clay, with a high iron content, so the wines from this particular location usually show more tannins, deeper colour and a fuller style than wines from the surrounding area. The vineyard is quite complicated, mixed planting of Riesling and Blaufrankisch, which are harvested separately. BF in the minority, so only one 225L barrel was made. Planted in the mid 1970's with density of 2x1 meter. South-west orientation. Bottom of slope.

The vineyard cadastrally belongs to Moravský Žižkov, but is located near the village of Prušánky, whose farmers historically owned this land. This particular plot belonged to the church (today the Parish of Prušánky), which is why I named the vine CRUX, Latin for cross. It is also a word that connotes something crucial, the core. This is what Frankovka undoubtedly is and will be for us.

In general, our 2022 BFs are delicate and at the beginning of their journey. It was one of the vintages when I was fully realised that I wanted to work with Frankovka in a very classic way, with longer maceration, fully aware that the wines would then need more time to be ready to drink, but they would also gain in ageing potential. Decisions, decisions.

It all depends, of course, on the vintage, on the phenolic ripeness and flavour of the grapes. In 2022, the fermentation was longer, at a lower temperature, because it was already quite cold by then. (Then again, the post-fermentation maceration was shorter compared to 2021.) The free run juice went into a 225L barrel, where it sat until bottling in the spring of 2025.

Zdeněk: "The 2022 vintage is considerably more subtle than our experience with the 2021 Blaufrankisch. In terms of pairing, we also find it more approachable. Actually, it's simple – Frankovka and Veltliner, what else should we pick from Bílovice to make sense?"

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Some 230 regular bottles and 266 magnums of LILI were made, and 77 normal size and 91 magnums of CRUX. All only for La Dégustation Boheme Bourgeoise and its sister restaurant and cave a vin, Marie B/Vin de Marie only, you won't get a chance to buy them elsewhere. So what are you waiting for?

PS If you're not headed to Prague anytime soon but still are longing for some limited-ed Nestarec, you can always get our current "online exclusive" in our eshop!