2013 Moric Neckenmarkt Alte Reben Blaufränkisch

Moric

Austria / Burgenland / Moric

A selection made from the oldest vines and the best sites in Neckenmarkt. The vines grow among nine parcels, on 80% slate and 20% limestone. The grapes are harvested separately, then fermented and elaborated for eleven months in casks. After this, an initial blend is made from the individual lots, which then enjoys a further thirteen months in oak. By means of this painstaking technique, Roland Velich of Moric gains important experience and empirical knowledge, year after year, about the individual vineyards. Only by virtue of this detailed practice can he choose the best barrels from each vintage, to give the assemblage that so desirable Neckenmarkter character which distinguishes this great wine.
44-85 year old vines. 24 hectolitres per hectare, 21-28 days maceration, spontaneous fermentation in wooden fermenters, 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 these Moric wines are vegan.

June, 2016

Stephan Reinhardt

Wine Advocate

94+ points

A dark cherry color followed by deep, highly precise, intense and elegant dark and ripe fruit aromas (wild black and blue berries, blackcurrant, licorice, juniper) underlined by a refreshing touch of lemon juice, leafs and herbs and some toasty and spicy pepper/pimento/carbon flavors, the 2013 Blaufrankisch Neckenmarkt Alte Reben is another great proof of how great Blaufränkisch can become on slate soils, not just on limestone. The 2013 reminds me of the perfume of a flowering heath and a pine wood in midsummer. The purity, elegance and sublime complexity of the nose is continued on the palate, which is silky, intense, fiery, sweet, juicy and crystalline. This is a full-bodied and intense wine, but there is a lot of finesse and perfect level of ripeness here. The tannins are as fine as the crystalline acidity and perfectly integrated. Can there be any better Blaufränkisch on this planet? The 2013 has power and lots of spices, intensity and pure and sweet juice, but most of all finesse, structure and purity, with the tannins giving a great grip. This wine will go for 6 to 12+ years and is one of the finest I have tasted at Moric since the – still great – 2006.

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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.