This second part revealing the most interesting wines we drank at home during February doesn’t range quite as far and wide as Part 1 (no Japanese wine this time), but there is a good spread mixing the familiar with the less familiar. This is by way of Moravia in the Czech Republic, the Peloponnese, Beaune, Burgenland, Jerez and Eastern Hungary. All good stuff at a range of prices, all worth trying, or in the case of the Beaune Grèves, worth a significant detour to beg, borrow or steal.

Miya 2022, Krásná Hora (Moravia, Czechia)

When I say “drank at home”, this is an exception, but we did take it to a popup dinner with free BYO, so as far as I’m concerned, that’s close enough. Especially so because I love this wine and I’d hate not to share it. I’ve written about the producer in an article about my trip to Moravia in 2022, so you can look that up if you want to find out more. This is a winery with a modern outlook which is keen to export, not surprisingly as they are mates with Milán Nestarec.

Working out of Starý Poddvorov in the south of the region, Marek Vybiral and his nephew, Ondřej Dubas really do operate the most modern artisan setup I have visited in Moravia, yet they do so in a rural viticultural idyll, vines sloping up a hill from the rear of the winery towards ancient oak woodland on the horizon. They have 13 hectares of vines planted on the “beautiful mountain” (as the winery name translates), and they also buy organic grapes from a further five hectares. They are currently converting to biodynamics, but they use no herbicides nor systemic agents.

The vines on this slope were mostly originally planted by Cistercian monks around 800 years ago, but it would be a stretch of the imagination to believe they are that old, and in fact the family mostly farm what we would call international varieties. Much of the vineyard does, however, date back to the Communist era, particularly the 1960s. The soils are all a mix of clay and limestone.

Miya is a Pétnat Rosé made from 100% Zweigelt, and is one of the “Faces” range of wines Krásná Hora makes. These wines bear a passing conceptual resemblance to Gut Oggau’s characters, though without a back story. Miya is the youngest “face”. The labels are pure fun and as well as Miya there are five other very different characters. What you get here is a simple, zippy, raspberry-fruited fizz from direct-pressed whole bunches. First fermentation is in stainless steel tank. A very small addition of sulphur is made. Although this is undoubtedly only a fun wine, simple yet pure and fruity, a wine like this can be just perfect.

We drank it with Sri Lankan food, with its own clean palate of flavours and Miya’s lightness went well. Although fruit-packed, the acidity, bubbles and a slightly funky finish seemed to do the trick. It’s up there at 12.5% abv, but the bottle nevertheless emptied far too quickly.

I loved the 2021. This 2022 is a slightly different shade of pink, and I would say it’s even better than the previous vintage. £21 from Basket Press Wines.

Antiphon 2022, Tetramythos Wines (Achaia, Peloponnese, Greece)

The Peloponnese produces some lovely wines, of which Nemea is perhaps the best known. This wine comes from further north in the peninsula, in the mountains of Achaia, though it is labelled as an IGP, not a wine of appellation. The UK importer of Tetramythos asked winemaker Panagiotis Papagiannopoulos to create a couple of exclusive wines in a low-intervention style made with organic grapes, and this is one of them.

It’s a three-variety blend, the first being that potentially great red grape of the Peloponnese, Agiorgitiko. It is blended with the dark, undoubtedly great, Mavrodaphne and the less well known Mavro Kalavrytino. Fermented in stainless steel and aged only five months, you get a fresh and fleshy bright wine with great fruit, even at 13.5% alcohol. It helps that the grapes are grown in very cool conditions at up to 900 masl, especially with cool, even cold, night temperatures, but achieve full ripeness over a long growing season.

We have plums, blackberry and blueberry fruit on nose and palate, the latter having a smoothness and richness with a smoky touch on the finish. Just for a moment I thought of Nebbiolo, especially Valtellina Nebbiolo. This is a genuine taste of Greece for only £19 from Cork & Cask in Edinburgh. It is quite widely available via importer Indigo Wines.

Beaune 1er Cru “Les Grèves” Blanc 2015, Le Grappin (Burgundy, France)

I have been a great fan of Andrew and Emma Nielsen’s Le Grappin wines from their first vintage, and even though I can no longer afford to buy them I still have some in my cellar. These have aged enough for me to confirm their quality within the Burgundy pantheon. Whilst it has taken the main “critics” a while longer to acknowledge this, I can at least take solace from spotting the talent a wee bit sooner, and I hope my early enthusiasm in print gave this lovely couple a tiny bit of a kick along the way to fame and stardom. I am delighted that Newcomer Wines has just taken on Le Grappin, an excellent match in so many ways.

Andrew and Emma profess to make fine wine from “under-appreciated vineyards”. Les Grèves is hardly under-appreciated among those who enjoy the particular qualities of Beaune, but only 1% of this 31-hectare Premier Cru site is actually planted to Chardonnay. It lies west of the town, with the twenty-or-so hectares of Les Teurons to the south and Les Bressandes (not to be confused with Corton-Bressandes) to the north. Grèves is noted for long-lived wines from Pinot Noir but the Chardonnay has been very well made in the past, if I recall, by Jadot. I know their Beaune wines very well, having once been a strong advocate for their Clos des Ursules, which I miss very much. I don’t know who owns the vines used by Le Grappin for this cuvée?

Six barrels were made of Le Grappin Grèves Blanc in the excellent 2015 vintage. The vines in a single plot were 45 years old at the time. Harvesting was obviously by hand, and the grapes underwent a very gentle crush and press. The juice was settled overnight and then went into 400-litre barrels with the gross lees to ferment (with native yeasts). Ageing was over ten months during which time there was no lees stirring or other manipulation of the wine.

The result is a classic Beaune Chardonnay with great salinity, rounded plumpish fruit showing a fine opulence, genuine depth and a little mineral texture on the palate. This is an all-round triumph, and it is drinking beautifully. I wish I had more but I believe this is my last ’15 white from Andrew and Emma. It must have been in one of their excellent mixed packs bought en primeur/pre-release. The current 2020 vintage on the market retails for around £57, purchased direct from Le Grappin, but their Beaune Grèves can reach up to £80 from some sources.

Rét 2022, Koppitsch (Burgenland, Austria)

This is the latest vintage of Alex and Maria’s low intervention red wine from former pasture/grazing land sloping down to the Neusiedlersee near Neusiedl am See. Rét means meadow in the former Hungarian dialect once spoken here, and not “red” as some people assume. The soils are well-drained gravels and the vines are relatively protected by the winds which whip over the Pannonian Plain from Hungary, though it is windy enough to keep the vines relatively free from disease. This assists the family no end in making their low intervention, natural wines. The shallow lake’s potential for humidity is evidence by the botrytis-affected cuvées made down the eastern shore of the lake at Illmitz, and down the western side at Rust.

The grape blend here is mostly Zweigelt (c. 80%), with 20% St Laurent. It is a light wine, just 10% abv, with a fun label. Zippy, fruity, quite funky with red cherry and blackcurrant fruit on the nose, which combine with apple-fresh acidity on the palate.

The two varieties are vinified separately, fermented on skins and blended just before bottling, after six month’s ageing. You may be able to tell that this has zero or little added sulphur, so it does have a slightly feral nature. So long as you like a bit of funkiness you will have your thirst quenched.

Recommended for spring or summer picnics, it’s a great outdoors red, neither heavy nor remotely ponderous. It’s a lovely, fresh, biodynamic natural wine from an equally lovely family. £24 from Cork & Cask (Edinburgh), imported by Roland Wines.

Fino En Rama Saca Primavera 2023, Fernando de Castilla (Jerez, Spain)

Réy Fernando de Castilla is one of the most highly regarded producers in Jérez, best known for their great aged Sherries in the “Antique” range. They have a bodega right in the centre of Jérez on the Calle Jardinillo. This firm is an exemplary small producer in every sense. Founder, Fernando Andrada-Vanderwilde descended from a family which had been associated with winemaking for two hundred years, when he started the firm in the 1960s. Emphasis was initially on Brandy, but the firm was sold in 1999 and is now run by Norwegian, Jan Pettersen, for a group of investors. Swift expansion into making more Sherries followed.

The En Rama style, translating as “from the vine”, is a relatively new offering from this bodega (first released in 2013). The wine here is taken directly from the cask without fining and filtration (I think in truth there is a minimal filtration for most en rama wines, which the marketing of such wines usually fails to detail, required for stability). Those processes when used on classic bottlings may stabilise the wine, and make it look clear and bright to the consumer, but they undoubtedly strip out flavour as well. En Ramas usually taste fresher than any other style, but many commentators assert that they have to be drunk very young (even younger than Finos in general).

The keen-eyed reader will notice that this bottle isn’t especially young, being drawn from cask in spring 2023. By the time these wines get to market in the UK some time has passed, and this was, to be fair, a Christmas present, saved for a bit of warmth and sunshine and an appropriately Spanish dish with which to serve it.

Fernando de Castilla’s en rama is slightly unusual in that it is a blend of their Classic Fino and their Antique Fino, both aged under flor of course, and bottled at between four and five years old. They generally use one butt of each wine, now only bottling a spring edition. This gives the wine almost two distinct elements, a youthful freshness and a deeper intensity as well, from the Antique Fino element.

We have a colour which is a little darker than many Finos, the Antique element again at play. Of course, one might worry that the colour is down to age and a less aggressive filtration, but the bouquet puts your mind at rest. It is both floral and saline, lovely and fresh, though hinting at some complexity. The palate shows a remarkable lightness for a wine fortified to 15% abv. Yet beneath this is great depth, more perhaps than I’ve tasted in any other en rama Sherry. The palate is nutty and salty too, both preceded by dried fruit of all things. There is also a chalky terroir element, which both grounds and accentuates the Palomino’s acid structure as well. It is described as “vegan”.

I happen to know that my brother-in-law purchased this from The Solent Cellar (£22), naturally now sold out. There is availability elsewhere but you could always wait for the Saca de Primavera 2024. Either way, highly recommended.

Eastern Accents 2020, Annamária Réka-Koncz (Barabás, Eastern Hungary)

I won’t introduce Annamária because I drink a lot of her wines and there’s plenty of information about her on my site, though this appears to be my first “ARK” of 2024. Her vines are mostly around Barabás, right on Hungary’s eastern border with Ukraine. On the very day I opened this I saw news of the new vintage due to arrive in the UK. Hopefully this will be in time for me to taste some in Edinburgh in exactly one week’s time.

Eastern Accents is old Vine Harslevelű blended with about one third Királyleányka (a grape variety I for some reason cannot learn how to spell without checking, but it is a local synonym for Romania’s Feteascà Regală). The fruit sees a five-day maceration followed by a whole berry carbonic fermentation in tank. Just 2,028 bottles of the 2020 were made.

I last drank this vintage in August 2022 and since then I’d say that an already impressive wine has blossomed. The texture has softened somewhat. The wine is plumper, rounder, but it retains a nice acid freshness and cleanness. The plump fruit reminds me of ripe nectarine, which makes it very satisfying to sip on its own, but it also has a savoury edge so it goes just as well with food.

These wines disappear very quickly once they land in the UK, certainly if you buy direct from the importer, Basket Press Wines. That said, you can sometimes find the odd bottle on a retail shelf where the shop’s customers don’t read Wideworldofwine, so don’t know what they are missing.