It was a crisp, clear day in South Williamsburg, Brooklyn. This was the view from the back of DOC wineshop. Inside, Slovenian vintner-artisan Aleš Kristančič (Ale-sh Kristan-chech) presided over an unforgettable tasting of his Movia wines.
Five of us, Natalie, David, Spero, Kylie, and I, sat down around a wooden table as Aleš poured the first wine, Movia Ribolla 2006, and began to speak urgently about his life and his passion for the wines that he makes. What follows are sound bites from my recollections of the six-hour tasting.
- Aleš told us that when he was a young boy he begged his father to take him on a trip to the city to sell Movia wines. His father relented and said yes, which made Aleš happy because he got to skip school. At the same time, hearing the story, I could tell that already at that young age Aleš was passionate about wine and proud to be in a winemaking family.
- importance of wild yeast because it is a direct flavor additive; industrial yeasts add flavors that aren’t supposed to be there – for example, bananas.
- pruning old vines concentrates sugars and flavors in remaining grapes.
- pruning young vines causes them to dig deeper into the soil with their roots.
- winemakers should grow the grapes that are indigenous or have historical precident.
- capri menthol cigarettes compliment the minty nose of Movia Savignon Blanc, 2006.
- barrels for Lunar, the wine made from clusters of whole Ribolla grapes, are built to imitate grapes with the wood to wine ratio equal to that of skin and pulp.
- Aleš has huge hands with thick fingers – the hands of a farmer. As a child, when at the table with other kids, he would keep his farmer hands under the table because he was embarrassed. Later in life, when working in the vineyards, Aleš stained his hands black, doing what he does -- laboring in dirt, growing grapes, making wine. Scrubbing with soap cleaned his hands and removed odors, but the black stains remained. While in a police station, Aleš was required to give his fingerprints and, therefore, had to remove the stains from his hands. Since soap was not working, he washed his hands with bleach, which removed the stains and is demonstrative of Aleš’ toughness.
- swirling wine captures the energy of the surrounding air/enrivonment.
- let nature speak.
- man cannot control nature.
- fast growing varietals have long distance between buds; vice versa for slow growing varietals
- Aleš believes there should be a new way of judging wine. Rather than a 100 point scale, a photo is taken of the winedrinker’s face a moment after tasting wine.
- young grape leaves are active and filled with sugars; therefore, they are preyed upon by fungus, mold, insects.
- older grape leaves are inactive and do not contain sugars and serve mainly as umbrellas.
- grapes are ready to be harvested when the seed is mature and ready to propogate.
- wine is fun and needn't be overintellectualized.
- biodynamic wines don't get you drunk nor hung over.
- microscope slide of Movia wine will show minerals, organisms; these are islands with people smoking marlboros and partying.
- the living matter in Movia wine coats the alcohol like a film of oil and helps to prevent you from getting hammered.
- taking pleasure in an activity that is theoretically harmful to the human body, like smoking, only is harmful if no pleasure is taken in the activity.
- adds must (freshly pressed grape juice that contains the skins, seeds, and stems) to wine to induce secondary fermentation in his sparkling wine, Puro.
- Movia pino grigio vines are 90 years old
- grapes are planted according to the natural topography of the vineyard (rather than bulldozing hills to create evenly spaced grids of vines, something Aleš thinks is stupid)
Aleš opens Puro, his un-disgorged sparkling wine. This rose is made from %100 pino nero wine bottled with the addition of some reserved pino nero must. I love this method because it is all natural -- rather than add liqueur de tirage (sugar solution and yeast), Aleš adds, must, grape juice that contains sugars and yeasts. In the bottle the yeast eats the sugar and creates carbon dioxide, bubbles. Once all the sugar is consumed, the yeast dies becoming lees, which imparts flavor to the wine over time. In a radical move, the Puro lees are left in the bottle, rather than disgorged in the winery.
The bottle was upside down and on ice for close to four hours before being opened. This froze the lees in the tip of the bottle. Aleš uncorked Puro in a pitcher of water, disgorging the frozen plug, readying the wine for drinking.
Spero, the painter, with direction from Aleš, portrays God, wine, rainbows, Marlboros and tsak.
This tasting was so fun that I thought about it for days afterwards. I am a believer in what Movia wines stand for.
