An exemplary wine maker. Extremely demanding and ahead of its time. Josef is turned towards the future and develops clever solutions to the coming challenges. His wines have been for many decades among the best of Austria. He is one truely clever and responsible winemaker!
This family owned estate is simply put the best sweet wine maker in the world. I hardly exagerate that sentence: the wines are spectacular and perfect years after years. It is a pure gem. I have almost never tasted sweet wines at that level of complexity and regularity.
This is probably one of the top three winemaker and the area. The wines bears a strong, very authentic personality. Contrary to many estate in the area, the wines are very pure and lively, no temptation of controlling too much what happens and the result is just sublime. Their Gelber Muskateller is one of the best I have ever tasted. Everything is pure and balanced. A must try.
In my personal opinon, Kollwentz is in the top 3 of Austria. That is, one of the best winemaker in the world. Its red as well as white are simply perfect. But there is no secret: he is also one of the most demanding and precise winegrower and winemaker I have ever met. Subtle, complex and lasting forever in your cellar. These bottles are extremely rare. There won’t be enough for everybody!
When USSR collapsed, everything in the wine industry needed to be rebuilt. Villa Melnik is one of the gems that emerged from this destroyed landscape. They make beautiful classy wines, focussing more and more on local grape varieties.
At this estate, they do almost only blanc de blanc of the raciest style. However, contrary to nowadays excessive trends, their dosage and balance are just perfect… at an unbeatable price point.
Provence is the home of fabulous wines, especially rosé and white. La Navicelle produces some of the finest you can find in the region. But they also offer some surprises, like older vintages…
The estate achieves in its wines the perfect balance between serious and generous. The exceptional combination come from the magical blend of Bordeaux wine varieties and Languedoc Syrah, Grenache and Carignan. The result are stunning wines that shows a rare complexity, balance and yet the power and joy of Languedoc wines.
Domaine Modat is one of these very small family estate from Roussillon. The typicity of their product is to be able to achieve marvelous acidity, even in one of the warmest and dryest region of France. Their wines are displaying a fantastic balance, I would like to say that this is the Burgundy from Roussillon.
Finding a great Prosecco is not easy. Because of the trend, volumes of technical and sweetened wines are sold… Furlan is one of the exceptions. Their Prosecco are racy and structured. Taste them blind, and I garantee that your first guess will not be Prosecco. With Furlan, you can learn to love Prosecco again 🙂
This Distillerie is simply a pure miracle. All their products are made with such a care that you wouldn’t believe they are spirits. The Cognac are smooth and complex. The Gin is overly fragrant and delightful and… the Hidden Loot may be your future favourite.
Yet another small family estate that produces fantastic wines, far away from the fame of bigger and often lesser producers. The style is build around the tradition blend of Champagne, thus creating creamy and generous wines.
Josef Umathum, Weingut Umathum
