HIBERNAL 2023

Name: HIBERNAL 2023
Brand: Petr Kočařík
SKU: SW-KOCARIK-HIBERNAL-2023
Price: 25.00 EUR
Availability: InStock

Czech Republic , Moravia

Gold with a faint amber blush, like sunlight through old oak. Honey, lemon peel, dried apricot, a thread of white pepper. Rich. Wild. Built to last.

Wine Type: White

Size: 750ml

Grapes: Hibernal

Drinking Window: Drink now – 2030

Vintage: 2023

Alcohol: 14.5%

Food Pairings: Roast pork · Aged hard cheese · Mushroom risotto · Duck liver pâté

Nutrients: Per 100ml: Energy 424 kJ / 101 kcal · Carbohydrates 0.1 g, of which sugars 0.1 g · Fat 0 g · Protein 0 g · Salt 0 g · Contains sulphites.

€25 €33,33/L

Hibernal started as a vine breeder's answer to Moravian winters — frost-resistant, late-ripening, quietly tenacious. Petr Kočařík has been farming this plot in Čejkovice since the late nineties, when his parents gave him a small vineyard as a wedding gift. That thousand square metres has grown into two hectares of meticulous hand-tended vines, worked without herbicides and treated only with what organic farming allows.

Hibernal grows in the frost valleys across all of Petr's vineyards — the spots other grapes avoid. He ages it in mostly new French oak barrels on the lees for over a year, without fining or filtration. The result is a white wine with the structure and patience of a red. Opulent but not heavy. Aromatic without being obvious. The kind of wine that makes you put the glass down, think for a second, and pick it back up.

Hibernal is an interspecific crossing selected for its resistance to frost and disease, making it well suited to organic viticulture. Petr grows it in the frost-prone lower sections of his vineyards on sand-loam soils over calcareous loess. Grapes are hand-harvested and fermented spontaneously with skin contact. The wine then ages on the lees for over twelve months in mostly new French oak barriques, occasionally stirred. No fining. No filtration. Minimal sulphur added at bottling. Bottled by gravity.

Chill for 30 minutes before opening. This wine is best at 10–12°C — cold enough to stay focused, warm enough to show its complexity.

You might notice sediment at the bottom. Completely normal for an unfiltered wine. Stand the bottle upright for a few minutes before pouring.

If you have a decanter — use it. Even 20 minutes of air transforms this wine. The oak integrates, the honey notes come forward, the finish gets longer. Worth the extra step.