MEDOVÝ MUŠKÁTEK

Name: MEDOVÝ MUŠKÁTEK
Brand: Richard Stávek
SKU: SW-CZ-STAV-MEMU-22
Price: 30.00 EUR
Availability: InStock

Czech Republic

Amber-gold, thick as a jar of linden honey held to the light. Dried apricot, orange blossom, wild herbs, a thread of beeswax. Aromatic. Textured. Genuinely unlike anything else.

Wine Type: Orange

Size: 750ml

Grapes: Moravian Muscat, Muscat Ottonel, Muscat Yellow, Muscaris, Muscana, Mery, Bluttenmuskateller

Drinking Window: Drink now – 2029

Vintage: 2022

Alcohol: 13.2%

Food Pairings: Aged goat cheese · Roast chicken with herbs · Charcuterie · Spiced lentil dishes

Nutrients: Per 100ml: Energy 387 kJ / 92 kcal · Carbohydrates 0.1 g, of which sugars 0.1 g · Fat 0 g · Protein 0 g · Salt 0 g · No added sulphites.

€30 €40/L

Medový means honeyed. It is also, in this case, literally true.

Richard Stávek keeps bees on his land in South Moravia — the same bees that pollinate the flowers growing between his vines. When he found that his Muscat grapes needed a push to finish fermentation, he added 50 grams of his own honey per litre to the tank. The result is not a sweet wine. It is a dry one, but with a flavour dimension that no amount of winemaking technique could replicate.

The grapes come from 0.3 ha of young, organically farmed vines on sandy, south-facing soils at the Veselý and Novosády sites. Whole-cluster fermentation in open wooden tanks. Foot-stomped. Ten months in old acacia barrels, stirred regularly. No sulphites, no fining, no filtration. What you get is Richard's backyard in a bottle — floral, wild, and very dry.

The grapes come from a small 0.3-hectare plot on sandy clay soils at 220–250 metres, facing south-east and south. The vines are young — around six years old — and farmed organically by Richard himself. At harvest, the whole bunches go straight into an open 600-litre wooden tank, where they ferment slowly with only indigenous yeast and a small addition of Richard's own honey — about 50 grams per litre. The honey sugars ferment out completely, leaving no sweetness behind, just a depth of flavour you wouldn't get any other way. After seven or eight days the grapes are foot-stomped, and the wine moves into old acacia barrels — 100, 200 and 600 litres — where it rests for ten months. Richard stirs the lees regularly, nine or ten times in total, to keep the wine alive and expressive. It leaves the cellar unfined, unfiltered, with no sulphites added.

Chill for 35 minutes before opening. Already cold? Take it out and wait 10 minutes — this wine is best at 8–10°C and needs a little warmth to open up.

You might notice a little sediment at the bottom. Completely normal. Stand the bottle upright for a few minutes so it settles.

If you have a decanter, a large jug, or any wide vessel — pour the wine in and wait 15 minutes. Makes a difference. Not mandatory.