Sveto 2022

A dry white wine of immense clarity: tightly structured, driven by vibrant acidity and a cool, chalky depth. Nothing cloudy, nothing wild—the winemaking recedes gracefully behind the variety.

The grapes grow in Haloze, a rugged, furrowed hill country southeast of Ptuj in Štajerska Slovenija. Michael and Maria Gross cultivate terraces with slopes of up to 65 percent, carved into the hillside during the Tito era; between the vines, only what two hands can accomplish is possible. Beneath lies Opok, a calcareous marl with a 25 to 33 percent lime content, into which the roots reach deeply. It lends the wine its structural backbone without weighing it down.

Furmint is the variety cherished by Michael Gross’s grandmother and today represents the estate’s signature grape. Planting density is around two thousand vines per hectare, with each vine yielding barely a kilogram of fruit. In the Gorca cellar, the wine ferments spontaneously without additives and matures for a full year on the gross lees in large, seasoned wooden casks ranging from six hundred to nearly three thousand litres. Bottled unfiltered and unfined; around seventy percent of the estate’s wines reach the glass with zero added sulphur. 12.5% ABV.

Green apple, juicy citrus, and ripe quince, underpinned by herbal spice and stony notes. The drive remains taut right through to a chalky, mineral finish.

Pan-fried pike-perch, crispy fried sweetbreads, delicate vegetable dishes with mustard seed, or Styrian fried chicken.

Michael Gross pays his neighbours twice the going rate for their grapes to make the transition to organic farming worthwhile for them and to revive the care of the Haloze terraces.