2019 Roka Blaufrankisch

Full bottle 1,229 g. Organic farming, low-intervention winemaking. Spontaneous fermentation in open-wood fermenters, aged in 500-litre oak barrels for one year. No fining, no filtering. Minimal sulphite additions.  The smell of violets and white pepper, chalk dust and quarry dust. Pencil lead and peonies on a warm night. The 2019 Blaufränkisch has piercing elegance and pin-point refinement; precise, laser focus. It curves a long, lean arc in the mouth, and then graphite-scented black cherries and lavender-scented blueberries flood the mouth with fruit, filling every corner. The tannins have the supple, brushed-velvet softness – but presence – of a kid glove. It's embryonic, folded origami tight; you can almost feel a cord, still attached to the vines it came from. And yet it's already articulate, already shaped. Sculpted from the vineyard. There's a sense of bitterness tucked into those ink-dusted folds: black olive, orange peel, but with the sweetness of ripe kalamata. Shadows and light. Chiaroscuro. Black salt. (TC)