Bencz Birtok Atlas

Vintage: 2022

Region: Badacsony, Hungary

Grapes: Pinot Noir

Alcohol: 11%.

Atlas is István's top-end Pinot Noir, made from grapes selected from the higher, rockier parts of the Rókalyuki vineyard, where drainage is spot-on thanks to volcanic basalt and clay. Only the best bunches from 26-year-old vines (planted 1999) make it into this wine. Hand-harvested with 60% whole-bunch fermentation in open vessels for 10 days, cap punched down gently by hand and foot twice daily, then moved by gravity to a 2500L Austrian oak cask for a year on lees. Bottled unfined, unfiltered, with zero sulphur. What you get is layered and concentrated with Pinot's elegant perfume and proper tannins that'll reward patience. Perfect balance between red berry fruit and deep herbaceous notes – each sip is like wandering into a forest, impossible not to go back for more. Around 3000 bottles were produced this vintage. Serious Pinot from one of Hungary's most thoughtful producers.