Naboso "Doma" Slovakian White

Naboso is a project by Nadja Peltzer and Andrej Mikulšičák, and their goal, put simply, is to work as naturally as possible to make good, enjoyable wine. They now have around five hectares of land, and the vineyards are in Malokarpatská (Small Carpathian Wine Region), in southwestern Slovakia, about a 10-minute drive outside the city limits of the Slovakian capital, Bratislava. All their sites lie on a bedrock of granite, with rich, sandy soils, and all the vineyards face south to southeast. Farming is organic, harvesting is by hand, and fermentation is spontaneous, in vats with indigenous yeasts. The wines are aged using neutral oak or acacia barrels. The winemaking is carried out by gravity.

“Doma” is an orange wine, which is essentially a white wine made like a red—white grape skins and seeds stay in contact with the juice, imparting the wine with an orange hue. This blend is made of Welschriesling, Grüner Veltliner, Red Traminer, and Red Sylvaner, from vines with an average age of 33 years, and a vineyard size of two hectares. The wine underwent 14 days of maceration and 12 months of aging in acacia barrels. The wine was bottled unfined and unfiltered.

This is not a powerful style of orange wine. Rather, it is a wine of elegance, with notes of citrus and stone fruit, flowers, salinity, and spice. On the palate, the wine is light bodied and fresh, with a long, complex finish. Simply a delicious wine to pair with a wide range of foods, from fish to pork.