Vinařství Krásná Hora Pinot Noir 2015, Morava

I love Prague! I still do … as it seems! Especially in summer! A couple of weeks ago I had the chance to reaffirm this love. I can't really tell you why exactly I love this surely beautiful city so much. Because beauty isn't everything! There are tons of beautiful places I've been to and many of them did not impress me that much. Perhaps it is the usual daze generated by highly unsensible amounts of cakes, coffee and high-voltage Absinth which might soften my ever critical personality. Noooo, I don't think sooo. I am not as critical as many people d'like to think. So, I assume it is this unusually relaxed – at least unusually relaxed for a large central European city, tranquil, serene and slightly morbid touch to this place which makes it so appealing to me. Well, of course tranquil and serene apart of those well known hords of bachelors from Germany, Britain and other palces in their Borat like swim suits and their slightly louder form of unconcious multilateral-communication. These performances are not so enormously appealing, I think. And there is  Franz and my everlasting love for his stories. And little Krtek the hero of my childhood. And, and, and ... So, I guess there are plenty of reasons to love Prague, but what on earth has this to do with wine!? Well, nothing at all! Or almost nothing at all! Well, in Prague I had the chance to hunt down a couple of bottles of Czech Pinot Noir which isn't that easy to find outside the country! And today I'd like to share the first of these bottles. Thanks to my total inability in the Czech language - by the way a very difficult language - I won't be able to jibber-jabber all to much about today's Pinot. What I can tell you is that it was produced by Vinařství Krásná Hora in Morava, more precise from Starý Poddvorov region, in the very south-east of the Czech Republic alongside the border to Austria and Slovakia. Krásná Hora is a very small family winery with approx. 5 ha. It was established in 2005 and produces wines from various Burgundian varietals as well as Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, Muscat, Traminer and Zweigelt. All grapes are cultivated in accordance with organic principles and were grown on loess dominated soils. My Pinot Noir was aged in used oak barrels for round about 12 months. I guess, that is enough.Let's get started ...

The Vinařství Krásná Hora Pinot Noir 2015 presented itself in pinot-poster-boy'ish manner at its very best. Colourwise, of course! Very radiant, very transparent and downright ruby red. Its nose was dominated by super fresh red forest berries, quite a lot of bright red springtime flowers, assumed morning dew, a hint of sage, mild smoke and even a trace of shy jerky meat. Overall very fresh, nicely lean, shyly perfumed and totally clear as well as impressivly precise. Very well balanced and not all too complex. On the palate I got the same forest berries, hints of orange zest and additional to these sensations very cool and precise appearing flavours of not all too ripe plums. Besides these fruitful flavours I got a refined touch of suggested limestone characteristics (no idea why), nicely integrated smoke - no jerky stuff, very mild herbs incl. a hint of sage, a bit of forest floor and a very distinct touch of a Japanese bean dessert which has just slipped my mind. Acid and tannins appeared really subtle for a Pinot from the bottom shelf (pricewise, not qualitywise). Absolutely no oak issues or simplistic fruit-driven sweetness. All in all wounderfully lean and fresh, really filigree, decently subtle, already nicely balanced, respectfully long-lasting as well as joy-inducing playful – more an energetic and suspensful game of chess than beachvolleyball in the blistering sun. To me a downright very decent ***** and irresistably priced Pinot Noir from mostly unchartered territories. It won't be my last Czech Pinot!

Next time my tongue will venture to the Empire State of the United States to have another Pinot Noir from the Finger Lakes.