Part Two of my wines drunk at home in February doesn’t manage the zero-zero of all different countries, as Part One did, but we still manage to range far and wide in the world of wine. We kick off in Germany’s Mosel, leap over to Australia’s Clare Valley for a different style of the same grape variety, and then jump back to Europe for a complex Alpine white from Savoie.

If those are all white wines, we then move on to a couple of reds, albeit lighter ones. A lip-smacking Jura blend plays next to an enigmatic four-grape mix from Burgenland, both being just perfect examples of the essence of glouglou. Last but not least we have a remarkable 2011 vintage blend from Moravia, an orange wine of a quality that matches the finest wines of this style I know, and at a price to make you weep with joy…if you could find a bottle.

Haart Riesling 2022, Julian Haart (Mosel, Germany)

Julian Haart took over his family’s vines around Piesport in 2010. That he became so well known so quickly perhaps has something to do with his work experience before that point, four different top estates which included Keller and Egon Müller. He has five hectares to play with, and as his importer rightly says, he is “making wines as exciting as any in the Mosel”. Julien is no longer a new star. That falls on others as often as possible mentioned on this blog. He is now an established one.

All of Haart’s vines are on slate, and have decent, if not considerable, age. The regime is organic viticulture, whole cluster pressing, fermentation and ageing in traditional 1,000-litre füder. Julien keeps it as simple as possible with the aim to produce genuine terroir wines.

Here, we are at the entry level, but that at least means relative accessibility early on. The old vines still give complexity. There’s a floral bouquet with some spice and confit citrus. I even found mint. The palate shows great presence and a certain tension. There’s a bit of peach and green apple crunch. You’d think I was describing a top wine. All it lacks is that transcendence top Mosel from a good year provides with age.

At 10.5% abv you will see that it is “fruity” and most would probably call it “dry”, yet that fruit has that sweetness which equates with ripeness. Perfect balance from a vintage said to be high in acids (like 2021), but also very approachable in youth, certainly at this level and quality.

I bought this from The Solent Cellar last year, for a ridiculously great value £24. Naturally it’s all gone. Check out importer Howard Ripley for UK distribution. There are stocks in Europe and the USA.

Polish Hill River Riesling 2017, O’Leary Walker (Clare Valley, South Australia)

I think O’Leary Walker must be having its 25^th anniversary this year because it was founded in 2000 by friends David O’Leary and Nick Walker. Both had already had winemaking careers during the heyday of Australian wine, ranging from premium producer, Petaluma to Aussie giant, Hardy’s. They chose Leasingham in the Clare Valley to open their own winery, and in 2010 they were joined by Nick’s son, Jack.

The winery is just south of Watervale, but the fruit for this wine comes from the northeast of the valley, along the Polish Hill River. The geology of Clare is interesting. Where the winery is located, we have mostly limestone, but the north-south running Polish Hill Valley has slate (cf Jeffrey Grosset’s Polish Hill cuvée). The vines are said to struggle and produce long-lived wines which can be austere in their youth. The north of the valley is certainly warmer than the southern end, but we are up on a plateau and at 450 masl upwards the cool nights help create a tension between ripeness and acidity.

We are lucky here to taste a fairly inexpensive Clare Riesling, produced in decent quantities, but with some age to it, pretty much eight years in this case. It’s living proof that you can find very good value Riesling here. It has typical lime fruit dominating, a nice lick of acidity, but nothing overpowering, and a good mouthfeel with a little mineral texture. The alcohol sits at a nice 11.7%.

This isn’t a natural wine, though it does state that it is “vegan”. Don’t expect the sort of complexity, nor the wow factor, that a nice bottle of Grosset Polish Hill provides, but for £16 from Waitrose this was surprisingly good.

Les Abymes “Electrik” 2021, Domaine Philippe & Sylvain Ravier (Savoie, France)

This was a good find and a testament to the art of browsing in a wine shop. I knew nothing about this specific wine or producer, but trust the team in this store, and I realised I’d not drunk anything but expensive Savoie for ages.

Abymes is one of the largest of Savioe’s sixteen sub-appellations (producers are actually banned from calling them “crus”), and it is located to the south of Chambéry, below Aprémont. It’s claim to fame lies in a disaster. Mont Granier collapsed in 1248, submerging several villages, killing at least 1,000 people, and leaving a cliff face over 700 metres high where the mountain had once been. It is, however, on these loose limestone-marl scree slopes that Abymes is planted.

The grape variety here is the Savoie mainstay, Jacquère, in this case from a single parcel farmed organically with no herbicides/pesticides. Fermentation uses only indigenous yeasts. Once derided, Jacquère can make lovely wines when treated with respect, something growers didn’t need to do in the past when a ready-made ski market would drink any local wines going with their après. Here, you are introduced to a lovely bouquet of ripe citrus with peach blossom, and then the palate brings fennel, stone fruits and a dash of lemon. It combines a fullness in the mouth with fresh, citrus acids and a slightly stony texture.

A lovely wine purchased from The Solent Cellar in Lymington, but the last bottle on their shelf, for £19. Try Jeroboams if you’re in London.

Hip Hip J… [2018], Domaine L’Octavin (Jura, France)

This is one of Alice Bouvot’s “gnome label” negociant wines. Most of these are just super-juicy gluggers, and this is no exception, so why buy it? Well, if you know Alice’s wines you will know that if wine is alive, then these bottles are alive and having the time of their lives. She makes some of the most vibrant wines on the planet and whilst her domaine cuvées are increasingly expensive, the negoce bottles are a little cheaper, but made with the same honesty and passion.

This wine comes in several forms, and I believe this one is Poulsard and Trousseau (as the back label cryptically states) rather than just Poulsard (as claimed by some retailers). Deciphering the back label is key to finding the vintage, and the origin of the fruit. Although Alice sources fruit from good friends as far afield as Savoie and the Languedoc, these Jura varieties seem to have an Arbois post code.

As with every Bouvot wine, you get fermented grape juice with absolutely nothing added, or “pur jus de raisin” as she puts it. Red fruits dominate zippy acids, which put up a good fight, making for a wine that tastes like fruit juice. Yet with 13% alcohol, don’t be fooled. There’s a little bit of volatility, 90% of which blows off, but this level of “feral” won’t please everyone. These are, however, pretty unique wines, busy, not sedate. The payoff is purity, emotion, life and soul in a wine which lingers on the palate. Also, despite being as far from a traditionally intellectual wine, it lingers on the mind as well.

From Feral Art & Vin (Bordeaux), expect to pay 26-30€ in France for current vintage, more likely £35-40 in UK retail, where Tutto Wines imports.

Ujča Hendrik [2023], Luka Zeichmann (Burgenland, Austria)

Luka has graced these pages many times with the wines he makes at Jois, in northern Burgenland, in a partnership under the label Joiseph. He is now also making wine further south in the same region, under his own label. There are some wines made from vines owned by his family, and also some wines (as we have here) made from fruit purchased from selected growers. The quality of both is very high, and both sets of fruit are subject to Luka’s extremely high viticultural standards as regards synthetic inputs and so on. The winemaking is the same too, all that differs really is the price.

We have here a field blend of red varieties, which includes as major components Blaufränkisch, Zweigelt and Blauer Portugieser. Undergoing a very gentle fermentation with no additives, it has a lovely pale red colour (though for my eyes it isn’t a Rosé), with scents of strawberry and raspberry. The same fruits appear on the palate in the zippiest way imaginable, carried over the tongue by a faint prickle of carbon dioxide, which addition helps obviate the need for any sulphur.

I’d call it light but not insubstantial, which is just the kind of red wine I’m drinking a lot of these days. You wouldn’t necessarily think that a red wine with as light colour as this one would be one to linger long on the palate, but it does. This is almost certainly because it’s a natural wine without synthetic additions cutting it short. The concentration is in the pure fruit, not a result of the way it was fermented and aged.

£28 from Cork & Cask (Edinburgh), imported by Modal Wines.

Nejedlík Orange 2011, Dobrá Viníce (Moravia, Czechia)

Sadly, in May 2023 Petr Nejedlík passed away. He left behind him, certainly in this wine, one of the very finest examples of skin contact maceration in Central Europe. This wine is something of a Moravian unicorn. Petr Nejedlík was a pioneer of Czech natural wine, not only as a producer, but also as a mentor. Moravia’s most famous winemaker, Milan Nestarec, first visited Petr as a seventeen-year-old in wine school and was suitably inspired. He also learnt a lot from someone who became a close friend.

Milan captures the essence of the man in a kind eulogy he wrote on his web site, where he says “Petr had a tremendous feeling for wine. He put positive energy into it…”, summing up by saying “this country didn’t have a better winemaker”.

I mention all this because almost everyone reading this will know about the likes of Pierre Overnoy, Josko Gravner, and other people who have had a profound influence on their region’s wines. Petr Nejedlík was such a man, and yet he is wholly unsung by the taste makers of Anglo-Saxon wine criticism.

The Dobrá Vinice vines are all planted around Novy Saldorf, a blend of Chardonnay, Riesling and Sauvignon Blanc grown on granite, sand and a silex/quartz mix for this wine. Vinified in qvevri (amphorae) imported from Georgia, where the fruit spends 24 months on skins. Imagine Sherry or Vin Jaune that tastes of marmalade and you get the picture. The flavours are quite unique, but genuinely thrilling.

This bottle is probably my third taste of this wine (I’ve had it at a tasting at Plateau in Brighton and certainly twice at home now). It is likely to be my last. It’s beautifully scented, with orange and orange blossom. The palate is velvet-smooth, very complex and long. It is a natural wine but there was a tiny addition of sulphur. Since my first taste in 2019 this has only got better and better.

This bottle came from Basket Press Wines, the importer, and retailed for the ridiculously cheap price of £35. I don’t think they list it any longer but there is always a remote chance they have a few tucked away in their reserves. A beautiful wine and a beautiful experience drinking it. Petr is no longer with us, but in producers like Jaroslav Osicka and Richard Stavek, we still have some of the original pioneers of Czech natural wine making some equally fine wines down in Moravia. Although maybe not so many quite as utterly unique as this one.