Magula

SLOVAKIA

Magula

organic farming (certified)
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Region(s)

Slovakia

producer details

Grapes Sourcing

Growing grapes

Magula

Respect for tradition, living in generations, participation in the miracle of creation and belief in the future of our beautiful planet, are values that influence our daily lives. Therefore we continue in the family tradition from 1931, three generations working together, and therefore we grow our vines and other crops organically, without the use of herbicides, pesticides and systemic chemical products. We believe that the grapes themselves give of their best, and merely provide time and space so that the wines can fully express their varietal and vintage characteristics and the unique terroir of Wolf and Rose valleys. We strive for balance, harmony and authenticity, which can be discovered also in our wines.

Our vine-growing and wine-making story is intertwined with the locality and its history. Our forefather Joseph Husar, a native of the cold mountainous Liptov in the north of Slovakia, acquired property in the Rose Valley of Sucha nad Parnou, a traditional wine-making village in the famous Small Carpathian wine region. The history of viticulture on the gentle Carpathian slopes dates all the way back to ancient Romans and Celts, however, our highlander forefather had a clue neither about viticulture, nor about wine-making. He studied the most recent available information and established a modern vineyard, supported by a two-wire trellis, keeping the rows at a distance matching the width of a horse back. That allowed him to work the vineyards with the help of a horse, replacing thereby the hard physical work. In a village, where everybody still utilized the traditional way of head training and working the vineyards manually, he was considered a crazy man for dragging iron into the vineyards and for keeping such a large distance between the vines.

Since 2001, further generations picked up the family tradition right where it has been interrupted by the communist era. At that time we were active at a lovely estate located on the hilltop, between the Rose and Wolf walleyes, where one of the many monasteries, that were once in this area, stood. Today only a small chapel consecrated to Our Lady of Lourdes recalls the monastery, and here is where our wine cellar is located. Back in 2001, however, we focused on planting of a chestnut orchard, supplementing the ancient chestnut trees which were already growing on the property. We were not entirely clear what to do after the restitution. Grandfather’s vineyard has been grubbed up by the communists long time ago, and we had only very modest knowledge about viticulture and wine making. Overall, the vineyards in Slovakia were in decay, people were talking about extremely low prices paid for the grapes, and that viti-viniculture in general required hard work all the year round, with an uncertain outcome. Despite of that we took the decision to step out on this demanding route, guessing only partially what an advantage are we up to.

In 2007 we planted on grandfather’s plot Blaufränkisch vines which gave us first regular harvest in 2011. The grapes of exceptional quality were turned into a deep and complex wine, encouraging us to continue discovering the unique potential of the terroir in which our forefather founded the vineyards, as well as the mystery of transforming extraordinary grapes into wine of exceptional quality.

Finally, we succeeded to find our own way through wines that spoke to us and got us under their charm, becoming our benchmarks. These were the natural wines from the winery Strekov 1075, whose creators were the charismatic winemakers Tibor Melecsky and Zsolt Sütö, as well as the low-intervention wines from the Austrian winemakers Claus Preisinger and Toni Hartl, made from grapes grown in biodynamic vineyards. To proceed in the vineyards, the vine-grower legends Ondrej Korpás of Strekov and Karol Braniš from Dolne Orešany, as well as the leading authority on ampelography Tibor Ruman from Šenkvice, provided us with advice and examples to follow. Zoltán Tamašek of Rúbaň inspired us to embark on the challenging journey of bio-viticulture earlier than we originally intended. Today we are producing authentic low-intervention wines exclusively from our own grapes, cultivated by organic viticulture.

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