2012 Moric Lutzmannsburg Alte Reben Blaufränkisch

Moric

Austria / Burgenland / Moric

Really wide spectrum of aromas. Darker, more purple fruit profile, with savoury, undergrowth and umami going on but at the other end of things, floral and exotic high-toned aromas too. Incredible complexity. In the mouth this is full of sweeter, plusher more raspberry fruits (think the skin and leaves included). Continues to build in intensity, peacock’s tail in nature. Sweet fruit just pushes on and on with really incredible length.
This wine represents a selection made from the oldest vines and the best sites in Lutzmannsburg. The Lutzmannsburger plateau arose on top of a primordial volcano, and here the idyllic landscape encompasses a variety of soils: sand, clay and loam, in part lying above limestone subsoils. These confer an incomparably unique expression upon the Blaufränkisch, which manifests Itself ideally in this wine. This wine has been harvested from ten separate parcels, all picked and fermented separately. After ten months élevage in casks, the initial blend is made, upon which the wine enjoys an additional twelve months in the barrel.
60-100+ year old vines. 17 hectolitres per hectare yield. 23-28 days maceration, spontaneous fermentation in open fermenters and wooden vats. 24 months élevage in 500-4000 litre casks. No fining. No filtration. No additives, except tiny quantities of sulfites. As a result of that, all of the Moric wines are vegan.

February, 2016

Tyson Stelzer

Gourmet Traveller WINE

95 points

A wine of considerable depth and presence, yet restrained and medium-bodied. Lovely fragrant cherry blossom and red cherry aromas herald a palate of excellent black cherry and dark berry fruit, lingering black pepper and firm, fine tannins.

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About Moric

For more than a decade, winemaker Roland Velich made an intense study of the world's greatest wines of terroir with the explicit goal of finding “that thing”, as he puts it, that a wine must possess in order to achieve greatness. When he felt he'd learned enough, he set out to make an Austrian red wine that belonged in the same pantheon as the great Grand Cru Burgundies, the Northern Rhône and the legendary vineyards of Barolo. So began the Moric project. Its medium is Blaufränkisch, expressed through ancient vines in a challenging growing region, meticulous biodynamic viticulture, obsessive sorting and fairly primitive winemaking techniques. The Burgenland Blaufränkisch is a brilliant starting point, while this beguiling variety reaches its zenith in the old-vine wines from Lutzmannsburg and Neckenmarkt.

About

Roland Velich comes from a Burgenland winemaking family but initially he worked as a croupier. It was 2001 when he kicked off the Moric project, working with seriously old vines that perhaps no one believed in quite as much as him. His zeal for this terroir and the Blaufränkisch grape has mercifully been matched by vision and skill. "Roland Velich makes the best Blaufränkisch on the planet. Full stop," says Jancis Robinson Purple Pages contributor, Alder Yarrow. Meanwhile this is also the favourite Blaufränkisch producer of Eric Asimov, the New York Times wine correspondent. "Moric, is a star in this world," he proclaims. And indeed he is.