Klet Brda – Motnik, 2014

For tonight I’ve picked a unique rendition of Rebula, vested in the prestigious, Mediterranean scents, this Motnik displays himself as a homage to the antique and the ways ancestors used to produce wine. And what better, than to have it produced ad Brda’s cooperative wine cellar Klet Brda.

Motnik is the result of a fortunate discovery. Old written texts depict a wine that used to be made distinctively. Out of black grapes, the black Rebula or Pokalca (Schioppettino) was used. Ancient winemakers used to sterilise carefully washed and dried barrels with home-grown herbs. Mainly thyme, bay leaf, rosemary and sage were burnt and used to flavour these oak vessels.

Similarly, this smoking of barrels was revived by Klet Brda’s legends Darinko Ribolica and Igor Skubin. It took them six years to fully develop and refine the procedure, thus creating a unique vinification style by crafting a wine that expresses the old’s experience and customs with the knowledge and aspiration of the new.

A total of 1.272 bottles of the 2014 vintage of Motnik were produced, and hand-harvested bunches from one of the best vineyards of Rebula were used to produce this wine. The vineyard’s name – Lisičk, is also proudly displayed on the front label. The 2014 vintage was a demanding one, but I get more and more confirmations that it could produce some outstanding wines, including this Motnik, which scored a gold at Decanter’s world wine awards.

Motnik presents with a crystalline golden yellow colour of thick texture, quickly stopping in the glass.

The aroma is intense, revealing especially dried fruit, apple slices, apricots, mango and pineapple. These open to raisins, sultanas, caramel, roasted hazelnuts, vanilla, butter dough, candied lemon. We also detect hints of Boswellia, rosemary, wild mint, thyme that are bound together by subtle notes of smoke.

A dry and crisp wine with accentuated freshness, mineral salinity, and gently caressing tannins. An intense, decisive and persistent taste reveals a full-bodied wine with long persistence, in which fruitiness and perceptions of herbs are repeated.

This gentleman will keep its vibrancy for at least the next ten years, so if you can, whenever you have the option, grab a bottle. Unfortunately, I don’t have the exact price, but it is available at Klet Brda’s stores around Slovenia or the wine cellar – limited, indeed.