2012 Moric Reserve Blaufränkisch

Moric

Austria / Burgenland / Moric

This wine marries the great heritage of Neckenmarkt and Lutzmannsburg, and embodies Moric's concept of 'reserve' quality: selection in distinct vineyards with specific attributes regarding vine age, site and soil – just the best barrels coming out of these vineyards find their way into the Reserve Blend. Mainly based on limestone origins, the elegance and distinctive spice of the Neckenmarkter component and the earthy floral aromas of Lutzmannsburg combine to show a unity of great structure and finesse.
Grapes from 26-60 year old vines. Natural fermentation with indigenous yeasts in open vats and oak for 3-4 weeks on the skins. Natural malolactic fermentation. Aged 24 months in oak barrels 500-3600 litre. No fining. No filtration. No additives, except tiny quantities of sulfites. As a result of that, all of the Moric wines are vegan.

November, 2015

Gary Walsh

The Wine Front

95 points

Rich dark cherry and raspberry, liquorice, juniper berry, warm bricks and damp earth, sweet spices and dried flowers. Medium bodied, fleshy and fine grained tannin, ripe fruit but that spicy, slightly bitter herb character runs through and adds a dimension of interest and intrigue. Acidity is bright and tangy, with an almost orange juice sweetness (and Campari too), slick of ripe tannin and earthy flavour on the finish. Can’t decide on 94 or 95 points, but gee, it’s pretty bloody good.

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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.