Vinařství Směska - Smeska winery

Story of our little winery is quite easy:-) After three years hard working in a Prague office, me and my wife Iva (Ivan + Iva = I2, that´s why this shortness) we decided go back to my roots to South Moravia, Zaječí (https://goo.gl/maps/i7wBnXZm3YVC4xrM6) which is in the middle of heart of south Moravian wine community. Fortunately, I´ve got there some small piece of a ground with a vineyard. And because before my staying in Prague I have worked for 15 years in a winery, I had enough experiences to run a little family winery. Must to say without any huge knowing about natural wine life. But yeah, it excited me a lot (and still do) big kind of freedom, detachment and doing things, wine things on my own. And last but not least fair relationship with the nature. That time I met lots of natural winemakers, drank a lot of natural wine and I learned many books about. But as we know, the most important thing is to try it itself. So we did. We managed to rent an old, nonused, dirty but lovely and cosy wine cellar, from old neighbours we got/bought 4 more old vineyards and start our first harvest in natural way. Suprisingly it went better than we waited, cause we let everything did very spontaneously and the nature made it. We undrestood that year (2018), that this is the right way. Till that time the area of our vineyards grew up to 1,8 ha and year production of bottles is around 10000 pcs. At the moment we worked on 7 small vineyards. Everything what we do, is just by our hands. We don ´t have any tractor or machine. Our vineyards and everything what´s on the ground beetwen rows is very hippie, no cultivation. Just once/twice a year we used a scythe. Our vineyards are full of terroir flowers (dendelions, sage brush, steppe grasses) and various insects. We don´t have any BIO/ECO certification... Why? We don´t need it. We simply worked so as to live together with our vineyards. When the weather is really complicating we used some own bio preparations based on nettles, wineoil and vinegar. The soil is quite poor and dry, full of little limestones, mostly loess. In our vineyards there are lots of varieties, that´s why we called ourselves Směska (in english mixture) winery. Grüner Veltliner, Müller Thurgau, Irsai Oliver, Neuburgunder, Pinot blanc, Gewürztraminter, Welschriesling, Riesling, Sylvaner, Blaufränkisch, Blau Portugiess, Pinot noir, Zweigelt, André. Our harvest depending only on our point of view. We didnť use any measurement for anything. When I see and feel that is a right time for picking up, we do it. The wine area of Zaječí has a great terroir very influenced by Pálava hills, which is the biggest hill around, great Pálava lakes which are surroundings this hill and warm winds blowing from the south. We have old basket press for hand power and we use only used (second hand) oak barrels origin from France year 2015/2016. We macerated white bubbles 2 - 7 days on skin in an open wood barrels. Depence on the consist of our mixtures. The fermentation is in progress straight in wooden barrels. Yeast are autochtonous, right from the vineyards. We don ´t use any kind of clarification (waste of time and wine). After fermentation process we decant all the wines onec, gives them oxygene and then let them lie for 6 - 11 months in a barrel with just once a week batonage. Many of our wines has still after bottling a little pearl or are spontatneously malolacticly fermentated. Some of them are lying under the floor. Let it flow...