Oszkar Maurer - 'Fodor', Skin Contact Olaszrizling, Subotica, Serbia (2022)

TASTING NOTES

Tangy, vibrant acidity and so much texture - this is a really beautiful skin contact wine, full of prickliness with umami & savoury notes and really layered aromas/flavours of ginger, saffron, fresh cremini mushroom, bruised pears and chamomile from a touch of botrytis and flor-aging. A looooooong finish.

Grown in the Subotica region, from Oszkár’s grandfather’s 1 hectare vineyard. This is 100% Welschriesling from 60 year old bush vines. It is macerated 7 days on the skins followed by 12 months in a 1340 liter barrel, which also belonged to his grandfather who produced wine the same way.

Recently, the 2019 vintage was ranked best expression of Welschriesling out of multiple examples selected by Decanter magazine, a natural wine topping the list. Bottled with no filtration and zero sulphur additions. 

Oszkár is a 4th generation winemaker whose family settled during the 19th century in the southern part of the Kingdom of Hungary, most of which is part of Serbia today. He farms a total of 16 acres in two distinct terroirs of the country; 6 acres are located in Subotica, right on the Serbian-Hungarian border where very old vines of local varieties thrive on sandy soils.

The other 10 acres are farmed just south in the historic region of Syrmia on the slopes of the Fruška Gora Mountain, which faces the Danube river and was once, millions of years ago, an Island in the Pannonian sea - a near untouched natural land made of volcanic and sedimentary rocks. Oszkár, a pioneer of Serbia’s natural wine scene, works in the vineyard without any use of chemicals and guides his wines in the cellar without intervening too much, only old barrels and one racking at bottling.