2015 Moric Lutzmannsburg Alte Reben Blaufränkisch

Moric

Austria / Burgenland / Moric

From a "spectacularly unspectacular place," says Roland Velich of Lutzmannsburg, from where a wine of such class and distinction should by rights have arisen. This wine represents a selection made from the oldest vines. The Lutzmannsburger plateau arose on top of a primordial volcano, and here the 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. About 20% whole bunches in 2015. 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.
Roland reckons the '15 is the best wine he's ever produced from here, and that's saying something. The nose shows blue flowers, black cherries and serious peppery spice along with those gravelly earth tones. It seems tightly balled up at first but then unfurls and builds, subtly but so assuredly, in concentration and fine tannins. By the end you have an immense volume of fruit layered through with spice and mineral inflections. Superb clarity and length. - Ed Merrison

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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.