Part 1 from the Cork & Cask Winter Wine Fair covered wines from Indigo Wines, Keeling Andrew and Dynamic Vines. Part 2 here follows the same path, with a selection from the wines poured by Roland Wines, Element Wines and Modal Wines. I didn’t really mention this in Part 1 but I have been trying to focus on wines which are at least under, or around, the £30 mark. Wine prices have shot, rather than crept, up over the past couple of years, and I think most people are looking for value. That there are three excellent wines here which retail for under £20 is a real bonus. One wine comes it at over £40, but I had never tried it before and it is rather good.

**As stated in Part 1, the prices quoted here are the retail price at Cork & Cask’s shop in Marchmont, Edinburgh. All wines will be available elsewhere but prices will not necessarily match.

ROLAND WINES

Roland Wines was founded by Roland Szimeiszter, initially to import the wines of Central and Eastern Europe (he grew up in Hungary). The list has now expanded although it remains compact, with 27 producers over seven countries. The list contains several cult estates, such as Strekov 1075 from Slovakia, and more recently, the wines of Alex and Maria Koppitsch from Burgenland.

Andi Mann Müller-Thurgau 2021 (Rheinhessen, Germany)

Andi is described as being a member of the new wave of German natural winemakers in the Rheinhessen region. Although I have a bottle of his Rötlich at home, this was my first taste of one of his wines.

This is denominated as a Rheinischer Landwein, so no regional appellation, perhaps because this is very natural, unfiltered and full of spark and energy. So not typical of much Rheinhessen. Andi’s family has been involved in wine around Eckelsheim since the beginning of the eighteenth century but Andi is taking the family domaine in a new direction.

This wine comes in one litre bottles and is just really easy to drink, like a fresh pineapple juice with a squeeze of lemon. The grapes come off limestone soils and are crushed and fermented on skins for ten days. The wine goes into very large oak for nine months. No sulphur is added. This results in a wine that is fruity but with a nice sour edge. It’s just 10% abv and it’s definitely the kind of wine you are glad comes in a litre. At this size and for £27 it is very good value glugging.

Johannes Zillinger Numen Fume Blanc 2021 (Weinviertel, Austria)

Johannes’s family has been following biodynamic practices is Velm-Götzendorf, right up near the Slovakian border, for thirty years. This is a holistic approach to wine, with composting and biodynamic preps made on the farm. Everything is done with immense care.

Numen is a Sauvignon Blanc from the limestone and loess soils of the Steinthal, at 150 masl. The vines date back to the establishment of the domaine by Johannes’s father, Hans, so are 30-years old. This really is a zero-intervention wine, intended “to let the wine emerge”. So, it was fermented in amphora as whole berries, with a gentle press after a few days, followed by a year on lees. No sulphur, no filtration.

The style is slightly oxidative but this 13% abv wine has a big personality. It may retail for £42 but I would recommend it as a leftfield version of a well-known variety. If you are bored with Sauvignon Blanc then this is really worth giving a chance. Austria does Sauvignon Blanc brilliantly, though usually in Steiermark (Styria), but this emerging region has some serious SB as well.

 Koppitsch Homok 2022 (Burgenland, Austria)

Many readers may know that I go back quite a few years with the Koppitsch family. I first met Maria at a Raw Wine tasting in London and immediately liked what they were doing. Over the intervening years they have become a bit of a cult producer, but it is only since Roland Wines grabbed the UK agency that their profile has started to rise in this market. They make natural wines which are easy to drink yet are expressions of their terroir, in this case the predominantly sand and gravel slopes down from Neusiedl am See to the lake, and the limestone hills which rise behind.

Homok translates as “sand” from Hungarian (although we are in Austria here, the whole region has a Hungarian heritage, which Alex and Maria are keen to keep alive). So, this cuvée comes off sandy soils from the Seefeld site, whose proximity to the Neusiedlersee (it’s the last bit of vineyard before the reed beds start) is self-explanatory, and which the label fancifully depicts.

We have 40% each of Grüner Veltliner and Weissburgunder (Pinot Blanc), with 20% Sauvignon Blanc. Whole bunches go into the outdoor screw press, the juice going into a mix of stainless steel, fibreglass and acacia barrels, mostly co-fermenting, everything being matured on gross lees for six months. No sulphur is added. You get a cloudy (unfiltered) wine full of vivacity and zest. A fun wine, 11.5% abv and £27.

Koppitsch Rét 2022 (Burgenland, Austria)

This wine also follows Homok with its name, Rét, but this doesn’t translate as “Red” as you might think, but as “grassland” or “meadow”. The grapes grow on gravel, in what was once a field for livestock, with views down to the lake.

The grapes are Rotburger (for some producers this is now the preferred synonym for Zweigelt) with 30% (approx.) St Laurent. The fruit was destemmed and macerated on skins for six days as fermentation began. It was then pressed into stainless steel (the St Laurent) and large acacia casks (Rotburger). Maturation was seven months on gross lees, no added sulphur. 10% abv.

Another fun wine with lively fruit and acidity, but also with some depth and, definitely, personality. This new 2022 is very nice and is slightly cheaper than the Homok, £24. Personally, I find the Koppitsch wines thrilling, and they are lovely, honest people who love their work.

Martin Obenaus Mo:Rot Zweigelt 2020 (Weinviertel, Austria)

This is another Weinviertel producer, from a region which has been rather ignored in the past, except perhaps for the wines of Ebner-Ebenauer, but which is now emerging from the shadows, especially of Burgenland to its south. Obenaus is based on the opposite, western, side of the region to Zillinger, at Glaubendorf, being close to Kamptal (which lies to the northwest of Vienna).

In many ways for those of us who like a lighter, zesty, red wine Zweigelt (or as we have seen previously, Rotburger to some – one of the more interesting debates so far as grape nomenclature goes) is often the perfect answer. A biodynamic wine, and as has become classic winemaking for many natural wines, a direct press into stainless steel. This has a very tiny addition of SO2 at bottling.

Crunchy fruit, mostly cherry, on nose and palate, with cherry skin freshness. Simple but a very nice package all round and one I will almost certainly buy myself. Quite well-priced at £18.

ELEMENT WINES

This is an Edinburgh-based importer which I’ve not come across before, importing “terroir-driven, responsibly made, low intervention wine”. Formed by Simon Lloyd and Steven Windsor, who claim forty years’ experience in the wine trade between them, they have been going since 2018 and perhaps have a slightly bigger presence in wine bars restaurants than they currently do in retail. Their focus is mostly Scotland and the North of England, but they have especially good coverage in Edinburgh.

Fangareggi Biancospino Lambrusco and Fangareggi Puro! Lambrusco Rosso (Emilia-Romagna, Italy)

Lambrusco has a terrible reputation, even today, with some wine lovers because in the 1970s and 80s it was a byword for a cheap fizzy beverage aimed at people who wanted alcohol in a sweetened package that didn’t challenge their tastebuds. Real Lambrusco is a different kettle of fish, whether very dry or with a touch of sweetness.

“Biancospino” is organic and comes from a family vineyard north of Modena and just south of the Po. This is a tank-fermented white Lambrusco, and as such will never gain the complexity of a bottle-fermented wine. But that isn’t the point, because here you get sheer joy and pleasure made better by the wine’s simplicity and clarity.

The bouquet is gently floral, the palate has pristine yellow fruit, like plum and apricot, backed by just enough citrus acidity to give a very refreshing sparkling wine with only 10.5% alcohol. Slightly off-dry. £23.

The “Puro! Rosso” is a late harvest wine from the less well-known Lambrusco Salamino di Santa Croce sub-region. Viniviticole Fangareggi is, as the suffix makes clear, a producer which grows its own grapes to make its own wine, not a given for Lambrusco, but they also hand harvest the grapes (no machine harvesting here). Off-dry fruitiness leaps out of the bottle on the nose, all plums and dark berry fruit. By way of contrast the palate has that lovely almost bitter dryness that good Lambrusco exhibits. Also £23. Cork & Cask show only three left but if they get some more this could also appear in my cellar.

Finca El Molar Macabeo Skin Contact 2021 (Manchuela, Spain)

This isn’t, the alert among you will have noticed, the first Manchuela wine from this wine fair. Back in the day this region, to the east of La Mancha, used to make equally despondent attempts at wine but has woken up and come alive to the possibilities these unloved old vines offer.

In Part 1 we saw a wine from Ponce, which is one of the new stars of the region. This producer, which started out as far back as 1998, is also coming up on the rails and presented an excellent orange wine from a once-disregarded white variety, Macabeo. Farming is organic and “sustainable”.

The juice has a week on skins during fermentation after a week-long cold soak. The result is a smooth richness with some texture and a tea-like finish. It’s aromatic, with honey and peach on the nose, and it finishes long. Again, I thought this superb value for £18 and it’s another one for me to consider buying. Others may well have thought the same because, yet again, it’s showing only three in stock. Cork & Cask surely have to get some more!

Thörle Spätburgunder 2021 (Rheinhessen, Germany)

Thörle is a producer I know pretty well, having shot to greater prominence after the brothers Johannes and Christophe took over in 2006. This is an organic estate at Saulheim, west of the once famous Oppenheim. They are currently in conversion to biodynamics. The soils are limestone and so make excellent territory for Pinot Noir in particular (although what I love about German Pinot is the chance to try it off other soil types, such as the slate of the Ahr and the volcanic soils of Baden’s Kaiserstühl and the Pfalz).

Element Wines was also showing Thörle’s Dry Riesling, but it is their excellent Spätburgunder/Pinot Noir I thought I’d highlight. There are three limestone vineyards which provide the fruit for this cuvée, Saulheim’s Hölle, Probstey and Schlossberg. The fruit is cherry, on nose and palate, where it is nicely smooth. This wine has more delicacy than complexity but that isn’t a negative. It’s very appealing, so most will get drunk sooner rather than later. On past experience I think it will age a little. At £24 it’s a very good entry point to interesting German Spätburgunder.

MODAL WINES

Modal probably doesn’t need a lot of introduction to most regular readers. Nic and Roman don’t blow their own trumpet as loudly as some but I have enjoyed their well-considered and definitely eclectic range of wines for as long as I have been writing about wine. Their list includes personal favourites Joiseph, Staffelter Hof/Jan Matthias Klein, Slobodne and Victoria Torres Pecis. My latest Modal discovery is Domaine D’Ici La (Bugey).

Two days after the Cork & Cask event I attended Modal’s own trade tasting in Edinburgh, but the five wines I’ve highlighted here will not be duplicated when I write-up those notes.

Folias de Baco UIVO Rabigato 2022 and UIVO Curtido 2022 (Douro, Portugal)

 I’ve already formulated one New Year’s Resolution for wine, to drink more from Portugal. It must be said that I do know these wines quite well, but I often wrongly overlook them as they are so tasty and also so unrepresentative of their region of origin.

The grapes for the UIVO Rabigato come from the outlying sub-region of Cima-Corgo, right up at 500 masl on schist and granite. Rabigato is the grape variety, indigenous to the region, but perhaps not one that more conservative Douro lovers will have heard of. Average vine age is 20 years. The fruit was picked in early September and tank-fermented as whole clusters. Ageing was just six months on the fine lees.

Roman says this wine gives him a Muscadet vibe. It has a lively, Muscadet-like, acidity, but perhaps it has more floral aromatics than Muscadet, plus a little grapefruit on the nose as well. The palate is refreshing with some salinity on a nice, tapering, finish. £22

The UIVO Curtido is made from Moscatel Galego grapes grown in the same sub-region of Cima-Corgo but at the slightly higher altitude of 600 masl. The vines are also older here, 40 years of age. Whole clusters go into cement tanks and are macerated for four months, so it’s a skin-contact wine. These are both natural wines and no sulphur is added.

The Curtido tastes very much like an orange wine in terms of the aroma and fruit on the palate. Roses join lychee and orange on the bouquet, with definite zingy tangerine on the palate. However, it drinks easy with moderate tannins and only a hint of texture, just a beeswax texture on the finish. Super-tasty and it was going down very well with a group of younger drinkers at the table. Also £22.

Slobodne White Majer and Slobodne Red Majer (Slovakia)

We have here two interesting wines from one of Slovakia’s finest producers. Interesting because they are part of an experiment to make a range of multi-vintage, multi-varietal and multi-vessel wines. They try not to be too explicit about the exact blend (though we have ways of making them talk, because you always want to know) because they are intended to be terroir wines first and foremost.

Slobodne is a small, family-run, winery which had to re-establish itself after a rough time during the Second World War and the Communist era. The two sisters and their partners who run the operation were lucky to inherit untreated vineyards and continue to make “natural” wines with a focus on traditional skin-contact methods.

The white Majer uses most of the white varieties Slobodne grow. This means Grüner Veltliner, Sauvignon Blanc, Traminer and Devin. The vessels include a mix of barrels, larger vats, amphora and concrete eggs. The result is green-gold with the kind of nose which gives texture even before you taste it. There are also bags of exotic fruit to brighten your day – pineapple, mango, guava, kiwi and lime adding acidity. These are all replicated on the palate, more or less. Makes for a lovely intro to this fantastic estate.

The red version follows the same principle as the white, but the grapes are a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Frankovka Modrá (aka Blaufränkisch) and Alibernet (a crossing between the teinturier grape, Alicante Bouschet, and Cabernet Sauvignon, which adds both acidity and colour). I think this wine majors on its simplicity, but gives you refreshing and concentrated cassis flavours, with a bit of texture and spice on the finish.

Both of these retail at £25.

Fattoria di Sammontana Sangiovese 2020 (Tuscany, Italy)

This Sangiovese is from the Chianti region but who knows why it has been declassified to an IGT Toscana? Clues abound. It is a biodynamic wine, but more than this, it is a natural wine made without the addition of sulphur. It was aged, after a slow fermentation, in glazed cement tanks tanks, not the traditional oak, for eight months and kept in bottle for a further three months before release.

The producer occupies an estate once the property of the Medici Dukes. It is now run by the fourth generation of the Dzieduszycki family, which purchased it in the 1860s. There are 13ha of vineyards, and they also farm olives with 3,000 trees in production.

This is a pure Sangiovese, intended for drinking young. Although there is nice cherry fruit on the bouquet, it is also gently floral. The palate is fresh, fruity and zippy with nice fruit acids. Maybe you get a little texture but not real tannins. This 2020 is drinking well and it seems pretty decent value for £20. Just as well as I had already purchased a bottle.