MARTIN VAJČNER

 

 

Martin is (in a way) the enfant terrible of the Czech natural wine scene. A relatively new winemaker in the Znojmo wine sub-region, but this absolutely does not mean he doesn’t know what he is doing. He has been working for the bio certification office for over 10 years and the knowledge he has gained through this work has led to a series of wines that sell out unbelievably quickly and are fought over by his distribution partners. The wine is delicious. Why enfant terrible? Because he has absolutely no fear to experiment, even this early in his winemaking career. Expressions of the grapes tend to be one-of-a-kind, which isn’t to say anything but impressive. Many of his rented plots are within a national park, or right next to it, meaning the soil is beyond “bio” but basically has had the biome and soil health legally kept for many years. All grapes come from organic vineyards (some which he owns, some which he's renting out) and are processed by hand. Going fully old school, he uses foot power to do the crushing of the grapes, without using any additives or without any unnecessary interventions in the cellar. He experiments with Clay/Qvevri vessels using local clay, and sometimes concrete, or steel, and more. All his wines are quite visibly unfiltered and unfined and most are completely without any addition of S02. When absolutely necessary- exceedingly small amounts (10mg/l) added before bottling.

Size: 2,3 ha
Location: Konice, Tasovice, Oblekovice, Popice,
Soil: gravel soil, biotic granite, gneiss and quartz sands, calcareous clays