MARKO FON
Malvazija 2020
Karst, Slovenia
From a remote plot of forty year old vines, it spends two days on skins and a year in old casks. This is a benchmark for the varietal, combining the grape’s gorgeous aromatics and cleansing acidity with impeccable balance. The finish is salty and whistle clean, a hallmark of the limestone soils of the Kras.
Malvasia
ABOUT THE PRODUCER
Marko displays as much respect, love and dedication to the land he farms as any grower we have met.
He farms three and half hectares of vines spread over more than a dozen parcels in the Slovenian Carso, or Kras as they call it here. Marko speaks with real conviction about this beautiful yet harsh landscape, where just a few centimetres of red earth sit between the plants and the ancient plateau of limestone below.
Whilst the vines are just a few miles from the Adriatic, they are also not far from the mountains. The wines benefit from a breeze from the former and the local wind, the bora, which comes from the latter. It is a wild place that provides a daunting landscape for all but the bravest of farmers, but reward comes in the form of the wonderfully distinctive local grapes Malvazija Istriana, Vitovska and Teran, which in the right hands, are capable of producing truly thrilling wines.
Marko’s responsibility as a custodian of the land is most important to him, and he eschews the use of chemicals in favour of organic remedies. The various plots are harvested individually, often over several months and after fermentation, the wines rest in old casks until deemed ready for release. These are subtle, pure and nuanced wines which possess a wonderful potential to age.