As I begin writing, I’m enjoying the extra Bank Holiday (January 2^nd) we have up here in Scotland. Hogmanay obviously requires more recovery time than New Year down in England. As I appeared to have a large glass of undiluted Aperol in my hand at midnight on 31 December, I can probably vouch for that. Perhaps it was just as well I didn’t spot any Bailey’s, though that very nice Whisky Cream Liqueur I tried back in November (from Arran Distillery at the Cork & Cask Winter Wine Fair) would have been nothing to feel embarrassed about.

It’s quite nice to be able to look forward to a new year whilst everyone is still in a relaxed and festive mood. Yet I still need to look back too, to the wines we drank in December…or at least those worth telling you about. December did see us consume more than our fair share of commercial party fare. Some total dross passed my lips (not to mention someone giving me a bottle of Barefoot Malbec as a Christmas present, a kind thought nevertheless). It does make me feel lucky to be able to drink decent wine, even if I’m more often looking for bargains these days.

The first part of the wines we drank at home last month has wines from Eastern Hungary, Alsace, Hampshire, North Canterbury in New Zealand and Slovakia.

A Change of Heart 2018, Annamária Réka-Koncz (Barabás, Eastern Hungary)

Some of you will know that this producer’s wines come into the UK in fairly limited quantities and they tend to sell out within a couple of weeks, at least via their importer which has an online shop (retailers do sometimes have bottles on the shelves for longer). At the same time, I’ve been known to get through my own purchases well before the next vintage arrives. What was great about this bottle was that I had a chance to try Annamária’s Kékfrankos cuvée with some decent bottle age. At five years of age, I think it must be the oldest bottle of hers that I’ve drunk.

It came from a 3-hectare vineyard but in 2018 Annamária only made 711 bottles of this “Blaufränkisch” (for which Kékfrankos is the Hungarian name). The vines are old, between 50 to 60 years of age. The grapes were 50% destemmed, with 50% whole bunches, going into stainless steel to ferment. It’s a natural wine with no additives etc (I’m not sure about whether it saw a little sulphur or not?).

It has concentrated cherry with darker fruits on the nose, the palate being very smooth now, with cherry fruit and peppery spice. It is still very much fruit-focussed, but it is quite rich and warming (only 12% abv though). Very nicely balanced. I do love the Réka-Koncz wines.

Imported into the UK by Basket Press Wines.

Riesling “À L’Horizon” 2019, Domaine Albert Hertz/Du Vin Aux Liens (Alsace, France)

Vanessa Letort works with several producers for her collaborative negoce label, making a number of cuvées with Frédéric Hertz (Albert’s son), who has been converting this now Demeter Certified Eguisheim domaine to biodynamics and natural wine production. This isn’t the first of those collaborations I’ve tried, and I’ve enjoyed them very much.

Frédéric farms 9.5 hectares with cellars in this attractive, once-fortified, village with two Grand Crus and overlooked by a couple of hilltop castle ruins up in the Vosges, above the vines. The vines used to make this wine are thirty years old, and are planted on a clay and limestone mix. Vinification is simple, with fruit directly pressed and, after fermentation, transferred into old oak to mature for twelve months. The only addition is a little sulphur.

We have a classic Riesling bouquet of prominent lime with floral notes. The palate balances mineral acidity with a richer peach and apricot plumpness in the mouth. Very nice, and also refreshing and vibrant. A few years maturing in bottle has done it no harm whatsoever.

£25 from Made From Grapes in Glasgow or (though sold out, I think) Winekraft in Edinburgh. The importer is Sevslo in Glasgow.

“A Fermament” Sauvignon Blanc 2018, Charlie Herring Wines (Hampshire, UK)

English Sauvignon Blanc! You don’t hear those words spoken together very often, although the variety’s homeland, France’s Loire Valley, isn’t exactly the Mediterranean so the concept isn’t completely daft. What makes growing Sauvignon Blanc in Hampshire possible is the rather special microclimate Tim Phillips farms. It’s a mix of proximity to the sea, with the additional barrier of the Isle of Wight just offshore, and the tall brick walls around his vineyard, which retain and reflect heat. Think Victorian walled garden, which is exactly what we have here. After all, if Tim can ripen Riesling, then Sauvignon Blanc should be a doddle, right?

Well, it’s never quite that simple, yet Tim has become something of an expert with the variety. It’s not a copy-book Loire that he’s making, and certainly nothing at all like a New Zealand version, but instead something uniquely English. It has a colour which suggests a little skin contact, but the bouquet is pristine and clean, with nettles. It both smells and tastes a little richer than the last bottle I drank, a 2017 (back in July 2022). There is still that filigree backbone of brittle acidity, but there is flesh on the bone as well.

Tim is something of a perfectionist, as those who have tried any of his wines will know. I’d suggest, however, that he should not worry because he has got it spot on here. I shall leave what I think is my last bottle of 2018 a while.

Tim’s wines are notoriously hard to source. Aside from Tim’s open days, when what little he has available can be purchased, try Les Caves de Pyrene, and also Tim’s local wine retailer, The Solent Cellar in nearby Lymington. Prices between £30-£36.

Field Blend 2019 “Skin Fermented”, The Hermit Ram (North Canterbury, New Zealand)

Theo Coles makes the wine at Hermit Ram. He’s a great winemaker on two counts. First, he has mastered zero-sulphur natural winemaking in a country where natural wine is pretty rare, even today. Second, he’s a real innovator. I don’t know anyone who experiments more in NZ and in doing so he is consistently nudging the boundaries of winemaking in that country.

One thing Theo knows how to do well is skin contact. Although you might associate the style more with making white grapes into orange/amber wine, this field blend contains both red and white varieties. We have Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, Gewurztraminer, Riesling and Chardonnay. These are all grapes you’ll find at NZ’s corporate wineries, but I’m wondering if harvesting them all together from one site and co-fermenting them is unique in the country?

The fruit was all destemmed and fermented on skins for six weeks. Ageing was in used oak barrels, the wine naturally going through malolactic. Zero sulphur was added.

The wine has the feel of a Pinot Noir, especially with the lifted cherry fruit bouquet, yet on the palate all the varieties add something. I can pretend to pick out their characters, though I’d honestly never guess this cuvée’s composition in reality.

Very highly recommended, but do give it time to unfurl in the glass (we used the Zalto Universal which seems to work so well for zero sulphur natural wines, at least in our house). I’d say that this is a bargain, circa £21 for the 2021 vintage I saw recently on Uncharted Wines’s web site. Especially as the single vineyard Pinots from Hermit Ram are getting more expensive.

Oranžista 2020, Slobodne (Slovakia)

The producer calls this (P)artisan wine, and I think that actually describes this pretty well. Slobodne are one of Slovakia’s new star producers, working 17 hectares of vines on a much larger farm at Zemiansky Sady in the West of the country, northeast of Bratislava. This work, to rejuvenate the farm, has been a labour of love for the two sisters, along with their partners, who regained the land after it was lost to them during the Communist era. Everything they do follows organic and biodynamic principles.

Skin contact wines are something of a speciality here. Oranžista, which they began making in 2015, is a varietal Pinot Gris. Part of the crop is fermented on skins and the remainder as whole bunches. This gives us a wine that is very deep orange in colour, but which is both fruitier and livelier than the colour, and indeed its 13% alcohol, suggests. The bouquet is unquestionably dominated by orange scents, and the palate too, but with an almost negroni-like bitter twist.

But I’m over-simplifying things. It is zippy and fruity yet it has depth too. It tastes a little different, perhaps very much like a full-on orange wine might taste but with much more fruit and less (indeed little appreciable) tannin, at least after a few years in bottle. It’s a little different but a lot more than just a little good. Possibly not for everyone, but personally I always think this is a brilliant wine.

The 2022 vintage should be available from Modal Wines for £31.50. It remains one of the best value wines from the Slobodne range.