Milan Nestarec, "Podfuck" 2017

100% Pinot Gris coming from a former plot of Blaufrankisch killed off by frost in 1988 (Milan's birth year!) and replanted with Pinot Gris. Fermented on the skins for about a week. Bottled unfined, unfiltered, with no SO2. "Podfuck" comes from the Czech work for cheating, or hoax.

Milan says: "There are grapes like Gruner Veltliner, Riesling or Neuburger, full of character. And then there's Pinot Gris. I always found it rather bland, boring, and lacking personality when compared to my aforementioned darlings, and didn't understand the PG craze. I guess people are sometimes happy to drink wine without having to think about it - but I always wanted more. [...] Fast forward to my 2013 frustration with the soul-less conventional direct press Pinot Grigio flooding all around us. For me, the biggest asset of this grape is its skin - full of colour, aromatics, and rich phenolic potential. Let's squeeze this into the wine! And that's how our first 100% skin contact was born. Due to the local clones, its colour was really dark; after a blind tasting, a winemaker-neighbour of mine congratulated me on making such a beautiful Blaufrankisch or Saint Laurent. I told him it was a PG, but he didn't believe me, telling me it's a podfuk (“cheating" or "hoax” in Czech). So I just adjusted this heaven-sent name to Podfuck."