Dlúhé Grefty
Mutenice, Czech Republic (Moravia)
The name comes from the old Mutěnice dialect: dlúhé grefty, "long vineyard rows." That's the whole operation, really — Jaroslav Tesařík, his wife Pavlína, and a handful of tiny plots threaded through the rolling hills of southern Moravia, a landscape of vines and cellars just north of the Slovak border.
Jaroslav picked his first vineyard in 2008 and has slowly pieced together a patchwork of eight small parcels, many of them old vines, on loess and clay. The family lives right below the vineyards and directly above the cellar — the commute is a staircase. Everything is farmed organically with biodynamic leanings, and the stated mission is simple: find out what Mutěnice actually tastes like.
In the cellar Jaroslav allows the grapes & wine to live. Grapes are hand-picked, foot-stomped, and fermented spontaneously in old oak barrels — no additions, no fining, no filtration, and little to no sulfur. Total production is around five thousand bottles, which somehow find their way onto wine lists from Prague to New York to Tokyo. The wines themselves are wild and joyful: field blends from old mixed vineyards, hybrid varieties, and rich flavor bombs with longer maceration time. These wines are some of the most alive wines you'll find in Moravia.
IMPORTED SELECTIONS
Alba Mixtura
Rosa Mixtura
Rubra Mixtura