23/02/2018
More about Miro…
Slovenia has always had a pretty good reputation for wine producing – more so White than Red. It’s a reputation that has waxed and waned with various fashions in what we like about wine – in the 1970’s the UK quaffed millions of litres (more than from any other country) of slightly sweet Laski Riesling. And then the fashion changed and Slovenia went into a bit of a tailspin and had to do quite a bit of thinking. In the West of the country, bordering Italy, they began to produce rich, full-bodied whites and hearty, thunderclap reds. However, over in the East, things are a lot more influenced by the southern Austrian region of Styria. The Pannonian Sea that washed over most of the land millions of years ago here and right up (through Hungary) to Bürgenland left a rich plain behind it. The winemakers in this corner decided to go down the fresher, crisper style for whites and in recent years have been gaining considerable recognition for their efforts. In the recent Decanter World Wine Awards, Slovenia won more awards pro-rata to entries submitted, than any other country in the world.
Miro Munda is a classic example of why people are sitting up and taking notice of Slovenian wines. Based in the East of the country in one of the most highly regarded wine regions, he took over his father’s vines and immediately began to employ his own thinking. Reduced yields, organic principles and an updated approach to the vinification process have resulted in a very impressive range of wines. Overall volumes are relatively small and the wines feature in the upmarket Ljubljana Wine Bars and further afield in Italy and Austria.
Miro has become a great friend of ours – possibly reason enough to convince you to try the wines. But that would be doing him a disservice. The wines in their own right are stunning and thoroughly deserving of your attention. He was one of the first to evolve from the historical style of higher yielding, vaguely sweet wines to a much fresher, fruit forward style. And very successfully too. Now the evolution continues to a more intense, complex style – best described as a “gastronomic” style. There is richness of fruit, purity and wonderful minerality. Everything is done by hand, yields are low (often less than 1kg per vine), sulphur is kept to a minimum and the results are stunning. These are truly individualistic wines made by an intelligent, talented winemaker.
