At the inspection in the New Winery Drnholec

Perhaps nowhere is fall as poetic as at a vineyard. Fresh and already chilly breeze chases through abandoned vineyards and opens a kaleidoscope of soothing coloures of dying foliage. On the vine the last grapes, awaiting the fate of ice wine in which first nips will turn their nectar, are dimly reflecting beam of fading sun. Among barrels yeasts absorbed by work are silently sparkling and a nonrecurring flavour of aborning wine is floating through cellar aisles.

An extra long reigning autumn of the year 2006 was alluring to viticultural clime by a striking power. My trip to Bordeaux, offered to me by Mr Kozák from the Kumpeto company, was regrettably set back by my orchestral duties. In the middle of a hectic working week a letter from Mr Lubomír Skrýval, an enologue of New Winery company, smartly sailed into my e - mail box. Apart from other messages it contained also a reminder of my own wish, stated on an already unknown occasion in the past by me, the thirst to visit this progressive and very succesful winery. It is the best pleasure of a wine lover to taste lovely wine and have the opportunity to call back the genius loci of the place where it was produced. After a few changes of the date on the part of me, due to both study and philharmonic engagement, the D – Day was set to November 3, 2006. By chance, the evening before the visit a competitive exhibition „The Top 77 Wines“ was taking place in Brno, at which Mr Skrýval and Mr Špalek colected a great number of prominent medals in several categories at once. I was accorded the opportunity to take part in that event too.

After the arrival in the station of Brno a company carriage of the Skoda plant and Mr Skrýval behind it´s wheel in good mood had already been awaiting me. With a short stray we happily reached a spreading socialist structure of the Masaryk University. After an inevitable accreditation we were fitted with glasses with the logo of the competition and a successfully made catalogue in a pocket version. Then we burst without hesitation into a universal student´s hall where the competition samples in martially neat rows, from the incoming vinners to the beaten ones, were impatiently looking out for desirous wine – tasters from the general public.Burdened by an honourable task to taste yet on behalf of the nondrinking driver I assumed to judge wines responsibly with the advantage of having showed up in the hall on time. In a while the number of visitors had sharply risen and carring a full glass from a table with samples to a spot where one could take a deep breath and turn on the heel became a circus performer´s trick. Not only for that reason did I manage to taste „only“ 15 wines of the winning lines, of course to maintain a socially tolerable state of mind, by the spitting method… Most producers presented wines of high attributive grades, often with residual suger and thus that number was limiting for me from the view point of keeping my tastebuds fresh. After about an hour of ants bustling on the parquet it came to proclaiming winners and awarding diplomas. Mr Skrýval would have to come up to the moderator and promoter of the joust in one person so often that he was rather handed all the awards at a time. Ahead was yet an auction of wines that were donated by some of the participants (including Nové Vinařství) for the benefit of the Burn Injury Centre of the Masaryk´s Teaching Hospital. At first sheepish, the guests soon unbent and worthy sums often flew in the air. As evening passed, we had to set off on the way to Rakvice, a birth village of Mr Skrýval. Lubomír didn´t hesitate to hazard his conjugal peace and yet pulled up to his attentively kept cellar kingdom (the private one) to give a Prague epicure an occasion for tasting several newly fermented wines veiled in a milk haze. Despite waiting for a few more months of cultivation they were already showing fully majority essence of the wine maker´s craft – a sense for creating brilliantly balanced wines with gorgeous acids.

The day before I had vehemently demanded to be treated as a winery staffer in an effort to be a nuisance as little as possible. After all it came in handy to my sluggish body that as a guest I could get up an hour later. Seven was still early when down in the dining room of the Skrýval´s cozy house breakfast started savouring. Soon we were driving through a landscape over which wine lover´s heart triumphs: vineyards as far as Ele can see, the Novomlýnské reservoirs, the Pálava, back - streets with cellars in Mikulov, well known wineries and viticultural lanes alongside the way, a pictorial piazza of Drnholec… From a small grove a grey monolith of the winery building rose. It is in for a slight repair yet it has it´s certain charm. It´s extend of the interior is surprising and doesn´t much respond to the outer impression. We changed into working clothes and Lubomír fell to an everyday routine. He sensorically controlled the tank´s contents in which I enthusiastically followed him. For the eventually scandalized readers I emphasize that during such tasting the wine is understandably spitted out – otherwise our labour time would end soon. The cellar´s observations are noted down into a working book and later employees following the instructions perform the necessary acts. I eagerly set about photographing so that my visit was at least somehow useful. I confirmed the will to be useful after a short while when, eye pressed on rangefinder, I felt a touch on my calf and with clashing glass I registered a grandiose accomplishment – I kicked down a big glass graduated cylinder, just filled with must, prepared for measuring sugar content. Although Lubomír remained stoically forbearing I picked up the fragments and rather got off to another district. I went around all the operations, properly looked into technical equipment and afforded myself another round of tasting the treasures in the tanks. I can responsibly proclaim that the year 2006 was successful and the wines will bear the best what our country can offer. A valued study experience was tasting wines in different stages of fermentative process. Nové Vinařství make all their wines of grapes of an attributive quality (see the czech wine law) although they are later declared as qualitative or even land wines.Highly sugary musts of aromatic varieties at the stage of half - fermented wine or even before were true delicacies. I couldn´t have chosen better time for the visit…

With the arrival of two other employees the winery considerably revived. Pumps began rumbling, tanks were being washed out for the must whose grapes were in that moment still staying on the vineyard. Absolutely surprisingly a snowfall hit the scene, covered it with a thin blanket and embarassed and mainly slowed down the harvesters anyhow demanding labour on the Langewarte vineyard. The morning passed swiftly and the lunch time came. We made for Drnholec to find services of a pleasant hotel on the square. After the refreshment we went on along a route leading towards one of the two vineyards of the company - Langewarte. I just got off the car and changed my initial mind (from Prague) about helping with harvesting. Ice wind was blowing and without Himalaya outfit one would soon turn into an icicle. I made a few quick snaps and scuttled back to enjoy the pros of a burning motor. On the way back we made a stopover which ruffled feathers of both of us. We dropped in a shop of winery fitting where I was about to buy corks, which must be changed from time to time in the case of older archived wines. Not just that the offer was limitted to closures of crushed cork of the lowest quality, hardly usable for table wines, but a real dismay was a shelf of import wines of whose quality would be ashamed perhaps even Kaufland stores. The shop assistent did not get the irony of Lubomír´s questions that were concerning the extend of the local´s interest in those „gems“ and with an inocent smile she assured us that the wines go off well. We darted out like rockets. Do we really find ourselves in a region whose terroir is able to produce white wines that do not easily find competitors even in the world?

I devoted the afternoon to another series of snaps from the process premises of the winery. In the nether parts of the building I encountered two oak barrels of un unusual size. They contained red wine – an oddness in a winery specialised just on white wines. A mischiev – making sign burned into their front desk briefly prompted. „Tono Vino Ltd.“ was there black on brown. Tono Stano, a famous art photographer, a patron of the Nové Vinařství and a co -creator of an inovative design programme of labels and all package material, took in this way his award in - kind. The wines were so far aging separately - Cabernet Sauvignon in one barrel and Merlot in another. In the future thy are planned to join to create cuveé in the Bordeax style. For Moravia a bit unusual varieties, aren´t they? Of course with my irresistible freedom I asked Lubomír about a tasting. As we then agreed, although the Slovinia wood had been doing it´s best, the grapes had a high sugar level and were technologically perfectly processed, the resulting wine bears only a trace of the beauty of the happier relatives born on the soils of Medoc. Yes, the destiny of Czech are and will be brilliant and peculiar white wines. Occasional successful red exemptions only confirm the rule. Luckily, Nové Vinařství had been wise up to this incontrovertible fact from the very begining. Though not having debuted far ago (it´s foundations were laid in May 2005 and in November of the same year first wine was bottled) they have recorded a considerable international success. So far the winery´s most valuable trophy is a golden (the „Ardea“ wine) medal and a silver medal from the competition in Bruxelles, (the „Cygnus“ wine), those of the most prestigious on the viticultural jousts. Surely, they are not the last records regarding the erudition and passion the both men keep to wine. After the tasting my guide willingly described me technical deepnesses of the filling line. Right on that day his colleague lingered in Germany to purchase a special head of a corking machine which enables bottling with a new type of glass wine stopper " Vino Lok ", which New Winery introduces as the first on the Czech market . It will lock a new variety series of wines called „Cépage“, which will complete the present product portfolio of the „Cuveé“ mixed wines. I got the honor of tasting first fhree wines of this series (Sauvignon, Muškát moravský and Pinot Noir rosé) in advance of their official introduction on the market. Mainly the greatly aromatic Sauvignon excelled with it´s uncommon quality (much to my regret and joy at the same time, it was sold out within a few first weeks).

Outside, in the meanwhile, the staff were cleaning the machinery – a mill for removing twigs and a press, which was already unpatiently awaiting an annonced consignment of freshly collected Ryzlink vlašský from the Langewarte vineyard, which the more sensible weather finally alowed to be finished. Some of the viticultural items can be very photogenic (the mill screw). However, no transport here… I set off, just lightly dressed in a cloak, to refresh myself to the neighbour´s vineyard across the road and made a few snaps, before I was chased out by frost. Mercilessly passing time was dimming my belief that I would bear witness of pressing the collected harvest. I bought as a souvenir a package of lovely Luigi Bormioli glasses and three bottles of the winning fighter from Bruxelles - Sauvignon „Ardea“ (it´s already a scarce under – counter article) and was nearly about to leave when I finally did experience an old tractor clattering with a trailer laden with boxes in which the first third of collected harvest was resting. The staff didn´t hang about and straight away got down to processing the precious bunches. Grains off in the mill, put in the press, and soon first springs of delicious must were pouring into a collecting tub from which it was pumped with mighty tubes made of inert plastic into a tank for sedimentation. I didn´t fail to check the sugar level of the must and with the feeling that everything was in good hands even without me I contently set down into the company car for the last time and made for the Mikulov station with Lubomír. An evenfall journey through wonderful drowsing nature of Pálava in a shuttle train towards Břeclav was a romantic end cap behind an enriching day for which a great thank belongs to New Winery.