If you’re looking for purity and sophistication made jaw-droppingly irresistible by underlying juiciness and precise structure, Martin Vajčner is the guy for you: his whites truly express the famed terroirs around Znojmo that he is so proud to farm.

And not just proud, obsessed: a vineyard tour with him quickly becomes a soil exposé, with geological eras and rock formation names casually flying around you. 

It’s no wonder then that Martin preserves this diversity of expression by vinifying each plot separately, sometimes even different parts of the same site if he deems them singular enough (hence, for example, the Welschriesling I and II). His underground cellar, inherited from grandfather who came into the area after WW2, is a tiny maze lined with neatly organised and gently bubbling oak barrels of different ages and origins, glass demijohns and local ceramic amphoras from the 1990s. (He also uses 2 qvevris made from local clay by a local artisan he comissioned, used for long-macerated cuvées.)

Should you be so lucky to visit, Martin will be probably jumping from one barrel to next and make you taste the same wine from different barrels with an almost childlike joy, eager to discuss their flavour nuances with you.

This focused, meticulous approach reflects his scientific background – prior to dedicating himself fully to his boutique winery, he was a viticultural research director for the Ministry of Agriculture in Znojmo, converting the state vineyards used for research to organic farming. 

His own vineyards are all certified or in conversion; it’s a mosaic of 8 plots of various sizes, some of them located in the local National Park and enjoying truly pristine nature. ("The deer don't eat Welschriesling, they prefer other grapes," he asserts contentedly when asked about getting along with his wildlife neighbours.)

Some of the vineyards are old, some planted recently by him and his wife Monika. “Although he doesn’t let me do much in the winery, he’s very particular about doing everything on his own,” she laughs when asked about their repartition of tasks. Martin is sometimes helped by his father Pavel, though, a former director of one of the biggest conventional Czech winemaking companies who enjoys working in the vineyard.