 to exotic wine travel. I am your host, Matthew Horky. I have to apologize for the lighting the conditions were in because Sherina and I have been traveling for the last couple months and I'm trying to make a little makeshift studio to do some videos for you. Today we're going to talk about some minimal intervention or natural wine producers in Slovakia. So Sherina and I just spent 10 days traveling through Slovakia. This was our second long trip to the wine regions of Slovakia visiting producers tasting new wines every day and we came across a few interesting wines that I'm going to share with you today just in case you find yourself in Bratislava or that country because it's just a hop skip and a jump from actually Vienna. So let's get started. The first winery is a producer I'm very excited about. This is Braño Bana and today we're going to taste his Veltlin, Gruner Veltlin or 2017. He is in the village of Svetijor in the Malo Karpatska region. Now what's really cool about this producer is he's not from Svetijor, it's a small town with a lot of wine producing history but obviously when Slovakia was communist then some of that history faded and now they're trying to rediscover, reacquire their wine culture and he moved into the village about 14-15 years ago and started a wine shop called Vino Centrum and what's really cool is there wasn't really a bottled wine culture in that area until he started and he was really pushing for his fellow producers or fellow winemakers in the area to bottle wines. That wine shop in Svetijor only sells wines from Svetijor and what's really cool is we met we met Braño as he travels all over the world, gathers wines and then does tastings with his fellow producers to try to help them improve their quality. Fantastic guy, him and his wife Natalia, we had lunch with them. I have to say they actually provided us with some accommodation to stay, to visit Vino Centrum and their winery and I'm very thankful. So, Veltlin 2017. This was macerated for two days on the skins. I have to say I have tasted this before but it was while we were eating lunch with him so we're going to see how it shows up. There is a lot of Veltlin Zelene in northern Slovakia. I mean it's really close to, wow, it's really close to Bergenland in Austria and it takes on, they don't make it as big as round and as fruity as in Austria. It's more mineral and green and herbaceous. This is obviously a different style because it's macerated. You can see from the color, a little more color to it. Let's give this a sniffy sniff. So you smell this, you instantly know that's a macerated wine, orange wine and amber wine. But you do pick up the Veltlin characteristics, some herbaceousness, not unripeness, some like green herbs. It's still a little pineapple, a little bit of lime, a little bit of dried apricot. Quite complex. Bronjo makes, I think he makes less than, I can't remember the exact number, but it's less than 10,000 bottles a year, minimal intervention style. This was our favorite wine from his. Let me give this a go for this style wine. Very delicious. Round, tannins are smooth. It's got some sweet tannins but the tannins aren't grippy like you get in some amber wines. The pineapple, lime notes, green notes, that's really well done. Let me get some spiciness. I'm really impressed. Shereen was really high on this when we first tasted it. I was just okay. This is actually right now showing me like a 4.0 out of 5 wine. I think it's very good, very well executed. And Bronjo, good job. Actually, I'm very impressed. I'm surprised how well this is. So we're moving on to another small producer in the western part of the small Carpathian region, just above the town of Bratislava, Zlaty Rowe, and the winemaker is named Philip. He's Slovak, but he actually does two projects, one in Slovakia and one in Czech Republic, Morava actually. And we're going to taste one of his wines. This is the Seven Radku. Let me see if I'm calling that Ruzave Cuvê, which means basically Rose Cuvê. And this has been open for a few days, actually. Minimal Intervention Producer as well. I really, really do enjoy this wine. It's a crazy field blend of Andréa, which is across Portuguesa, Blau Frances, Saint Laurent, and Cabernet Morava. Another interesting cross. You see this insane color going on here? Let's give this a go. Very complex rosé. Super complex. Chewy. Some light raspberry, strawberry notes. A little bit of earth mineral. This is showing super well. So I like this. I have to admit, I've tasted this before. Let me give it a go. More of a serious rosé. It has texture. You really, really can feel it. It's chewy. They're not a tannins, but you still have the light red berry fruits. It's still crisp and refreshing on a hot summer day. But also, since it's unfounded, it's unfiltered. It has texture, weight, something you can have at the dinner table. I'm liking this a lot. I'm going to go 4.1 out of 5 on the vino. I think it's delicious. Philip's doing a really, really good job there. So nice. Let's move on. Here's the wine that I think I was most impressed with when we visited Philip. This is actually from Slovak grapes. This is the Tietoruki Pinot Noir 2015. I think he only made one barrel of this wine. Grapes are from South Slovakia. So let's give this a little bit of South Slovakia. A little bit warmer. It's a little bit easier to get to phenolic ripeness. You can see true Pinot Noir color, but it's cloudy. It's unfiltered, which I'm loving. This is a German clone. Cherine looked it up, actually. It's not a Burgundy clone. It is a German clone. This is smelling, and this has been open for a day. I have to admit, I've tasted this twice before. Raspberry, cherry, a little bit more denser than you think of Pinot Noir, but still has the forest floor notes. A little bit of white pepper. This smells really good, actually. Medium body, unfinding, unfiltered, so it has the texture. It's chewy. You can definitely tell that it's a minimal intervention, natural style wine, but it's really well executed. I can't see a lot of people that like Pinot Noir and not liking this. Pretty good effort. Let me give this a little... Wow. I'm going to also say about 4.1 out of 5 on Vavino. I think it's delicious. It's something that I could drink chilled, something that I could drink by itself, have with food. Also, I wouldn't be scared to show this to people that have more refined palates, saying, hey, here's some Pinot Noir from Slovakia. Really good stuff, Philippe. I think what he's doing there is also fantastic. Right now, really small production, but they're planting new vineyards, so the production will rise. There's some interesting stuff in Slovakia. It's really cool. There are a lot of small, minimal intervention producers, and they're really making some interesting stuff from unique grapes, from crosses, from grapes that you might know, grapes that you might not know. I think it's worth checking out, and some of those wines are starting to get exported all around the world. So, Philippe's Latte Roe, Brano from Brano Bana, good job. Guys, check them out, and if you like this video, please subscribe to our YouTube channel, Roads at Aquare Travel. I will see you the next episode.