Montrose bar and restaurant on Montrose Terrace in Edinburgh not only gives its famed sibling Timberyard a run for its money in cool ambience and top-quality wine, it is also becoming a place where I seem to taste any wines Peter Honegger of Newcomer Wines brings up to Edinburgh. Peter was up here with Milan Nestarec for a special dinner, including Nestarec wines and a schnitzel I was very sorry to miss. I did, however, manage to fit in a solo tasting of a few wines before a train dash.

It was great to meet Milan again, as it has been a long time since I’ve seen him, despite being very briefly in his village, Velké Bilovice in Moravia, in the interim. Milan’s “Forks and Knives” red and white cuvées were the first Czech wines I ever tasted, purchased from Newcomer, for whom Milan was their first producer from outside of Austria.

Milan and Peter at Montrose

Milan Nestarec Forks & Knives (Red) 2020 is a blend led by Frankovka/Blaufränkisch. I was able to compare the 2020 with the 2019 vintage, the latter from magnum, and in many respects, these are totally different wines. Let’s start with the 2019. It is lively and even has a faint touch of volatility. That’s not an issue, it’s clearly a zesty, fruity natural wine. The 2020, however, is seemingly on another level. Quite a bit more serious, savoury and grippy. I’m going to suggest that whether or not you have drunk the 2019, this 2020 is definitely worth seeking out. I think Milan feels he has moved his winemaking up a level, and Peter would certainly agree. £36 for the 2020 vintage (both red and white cuvées) from Newcomer Wines.

Rieffel Crémant d’Alsace 2020 is one of my very favourite Alsace Crémants, as indeed is the pink sparkler Lucas Rieffel also makes in the top Alsace village of Mittelbergheim in the vibrant north of the region. I would suggest that I like this wine so much because it is slightly atypical. The blend itself is atypical to begin with. So much Crémant in the region has been made using Chardonnay in more recent decades, but Lucas blends Auxerrois, Pinot Gris and Riesling here. It is very dry, with zero dosage, and is light, as in “lemon-fresh”. It sees nine months in foudre, which adds a little weight to balance the zip, so that it tastes in no way insubstantial, yet completely lacks the occasional heaviness one finds with the wines made from easy to ripen Chardonnay in this most sunny of French regions. Disgorged November 2022. This is definitely a wine which should appeal to, and intrigue, Champagne lovers, especially on price: £35.

Raphaëlle Guyot “L’Aurore” (Burgundy, Vin de France 2023) comes from vines cultivated by Domaine Verret at St Bris-le-Vineux to the west of Chablis. St Bris as an appellation is for Sauvignon Blanc, a variety which has seeped into this peripheral part of Burgundy from the Loire Valley, over the hills to the west (less distance than many might imagine). This wine is, however, 100% Chardonnay, both vinified and aged in oak.

Raphaëlle has around 1.5ha under biodynamic cultivation, her plan being to create a larger mixed farm with cereals and cattle. Because the vineyard is so small, Raphaëlle currently runs a negociant arm as well. This cuvée is very impressive, with a savoury element on the nose which leads in to a palate that has a light and fresh attack but builds a more substantial mid-palate commensurate with the oak ageing. Raphaëlle worked, inter alia, at Liger-Belair (Vosne), and the level of ambition shows. This is a new cuvée not yet up on the Newcomer web site, but the Guyot wines they do list, from 2022, all range between £39 and £54.

Foradori Manzoni Bianco “Fontanasanta” 2023. Back in July 2024 I tasted the previous vintage of Foradori’s Manzoni, and I mentioned the way the new generation at this outstanding Trentino-Alto-Adige estate is transforming it into a centre for not just biodynamic natural winemaking, but also as a centre of permaculture, cattle, cheese and market gardening now getting equal emphasis with the wine.

This 2023 really is a beauty. Lifted, fresh, but not what I’d call acidic, the fresh fruit seems to be cocooned in soft velvet, yet there is texture lying beneath. It saw a little skin contact but not a lot, and it’s important to note the ageing regime now…it only stayed in barrel until April last year. I love this wine, whether young or after a year or two in bottle. Although I’ve tended to find Foradori wines appreciate ageing in past vintages, I feel that this particular wine will be just as good drunk early. I wonder what others think? The wine is totally alive, and I’m very impressed with the refinements being made at this iconic estate. I don’t know the price of the 2023, although the 2022 I tasted last year can still be had for £34.

Matassa Tommy Ferriol 2023 is a Vin de France from Roussillon. Tom Lubbe came from South Africa around twenty years ago and met his wife when he interned at Domaine Gauby (she’s Gauby’s sister). They now farm together more than twenty hectares of vines, most which range between 60-120 years old. A fan of Matassa in the early days, I sort of lost touch, although I very much kept up with the Matassa story via one of Tom’s own interns, Stefanie Renner, who of course immortalised him in one of the original Rennersistas cuvées.

Tommy Ferriol is an unusual blend of Syrah with 10% Muscat. Although no sulphur is added, and you can see that in the freshness and vivacity of the wine, there is not one hint in the winemaking. Not a remote sniff or prickle of any volatility. It is bottled early though, so it retains so much freshness and fruit. It’s an intriguing wine and it is showing well now. It comes off the black soils near the new (since 2020, when they moved from Calce) Matassa winery, ten minutes outside of Perpignan. I’m told it’s the former home of Mas Ferriol. Even though this new vintage is showing so well, you may not get to try it as the 2023 vintage (£44) is already showing as “sold out” on Newcomer’s web site. Perhaps they will get some more?

These are five wines I would be very pleased to receive in a mixed case, but also look out for that Rieffel pink sparkler called “Mister Pink”, sighted all too rarely. Also look out for the new Nestarec vintages. The two Forks & Knives cuvées provide an introduction to a varied and wide range of exceptional Czech natural wines Milan produces.

It was great to have a quick chat with Milan, and of course to annoy him by telling him how good I think his wife’s wines are (hopefully another one or two of those from the new 2023 vintage arriving this week). It was also good to be reminded of a wine, Forks & Knives, which I’ve not bought for several vintages. When constantly looking for new wines, it is all too easy to forget others one already knows. During the Covid period I bought/drank more wines from Newcomer’s portfolio than anyone else’s, many via the much-missed “Littlewine” online shop, and I have been pleased to dip back into Newcomer Wines this past eighteen months, both at tastings and through the odd purchase.