Radikon Jakot 2018 (500ML)

95 VM

Dusty and exotically floral, with a contrasting whiff of underbrush giving way to dried apricots and young kiwi, the wildly unique and deeply alluring 2018 Jakot opens in the glass. It's silky-smooth with a burst of ginger and tart orchard fruits offset by zesty acidity, as nuances of blood orange add a bitter twang. The 2018 finishes surprisingly fresh yet still structured, with a lingering primary concentration. Certainly not for everyone, the Jakot, a varietal Friulano, is a must for fans of skin-contact wines. - Eric Guido, Vinous Media

The name "Jakot” is bit of an FU to the EU's ruling that the word Tokai/Tokaj was banned from being used by any wine outside of Hungary. By spelling it backwards, those in the know can tell this story and we can all laugh at the pettiness of bureaucracy.

The wine is released in 500ml and liter formats each vintage. Stanko believed that the 750ml size did not provide the right amount of wine for two people to share at dinner. Therefore, he wanted to bottle all of his wines in liters and half-liters so that two people could then have a half liter of white and a half liter of red.

In studies that he conducted with a cork manufacturer, a custom cork for these two bottles was designed that gives the optimal surface-to-air permeability ratio for aging their wines. It is a narrower, smaller cork than the classic model. In deference to this cork, Stanko himself created a prototype bottle from silicon for the new liters and half-liters, and then had them manufactured at a local bottle factory.

Winemaking:
The grapes are destemmed and gently crushed with a pneumatic press. The juice is placed in old Slavonian oak vats and fermented with native yeasts. It macerates with the skins for around three months (however long it takes to reach total dryness) with no temperature control and no sulfur. The wine is then racked and aged on its lees in huge Slavonian oak casks (25-35-hectoliters) for 3-4 years and racked twice a year before bottling. The bottles are aged for several years before release.

Grapes: Tokaj Friulano

SO2: No sulfur added to the wine

Soil Composition: Shale, Clay

Farming:
Organic (not certified)

Age of vines: 30 years old on average

Fining/Filtration: Unfined/Unfiltered