Moric Hausmarke Red S21

It might stretch things a bit to say that Roland Velich is a rebel, but it would be true to say that he has broken with family tradition in setting up Weingut Moric, his own business. While the rest of his winemaking family (and Roland still works with his brother Heinz at the familial estate) continue to make white wines, as they have traditionally done, Roland decided that he wanted to make reds too. This was the 1990s and in 2001 he released the first wine of his ‘Blaufränkisch Unplugged’ project. Since then he has gone from strength to strength, turning out wine after wine of elegance that reflect their terroir. The blaufränkisch is grown in the Mittelburgenland, south of Vienna, close to the Hungarian border. Here the slatey clay and limestone soils, on slopes that overlook the famous Neusiedlersee, provide fruit that sees the absolute minimum of chemical interventions. Roland ruthlessly whittles down what reaches the crush through a rigorous selection programme. He follows this with a hands-off approach in the winery, slowly fermenting using natural yeasts in open vats. Ageing takes place in large old vats so that oak can’t mask the fresh, elegant terroir-driven flavours.