Radikon Oslavje 2018 (1.0L)

94 VM

Masses of dusty flowers, exotic spice, tangerine and dried blood orange waft up from the 2018 O……(Oslavje). This entices the palate with a zesty mix of vibrant acidity and wild citrus fruits as a tropical floral air forms toward the close. It finishes incredibly long, blending salty and sweet with candied grapefruit traces that linger long. This is such a zesty wine. The O……(Oslavje) is an equal parts blend of Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc. This is the first vintage, including fruit from a newly-rented vineyard near the property, with vines between forty and fifty years old. - EG, Vinous Media

This wine is named after the neighboring village of Oslavia where the grapes come from.

It 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: 50% Sauvignon Blanc 50% Chardonnay

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