Kasnyik Orange Rizling 2019

The Kasnyik family is one of the founding members of the “Autentista Slovakia” association that has now grown to include 5 producers including Slobodné Vinárstvo, Magula, Mátyás, and Strekov 1075. The association has strict guidelines on farming, cellar practices, and how to ultimately restore and preserve the culture of wine along the Danube. The area is very much a crossroads in Central Europe and the epicenter of winemaking in Slovakia.

Rizling means Welschriesling/Olaszrizling unless you specify otherwise. It’s one of the most widely planted grapes in the Pannonian basin and you can find it ranging from Eiswein, to sparkling, to 2-liter plastic bottles at the supermarket, to age-worthy dry wines, and increasingly as a great candidate for skin maceration. Hand picked and destemmed, Gábor spontaneously ferments on the skins in open vats. Bottled unfiltered with a small addition of sulfur (~20ppm).

This is a cloudy and delicious orange wine, full of apricot, grass, orange peel, and lemon notes. Lots of lees contact with ripe fruit and low tannins.