{"id":2117153,"date":"2023-11-24T11:24:29","date_gmt":"2023-11-24T11:24:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/yorkshire\/?p=2117153"},"modified":"2023-11-27T11:17:56","modified_gmt":"2023-11-27T11:17:56","slug":"the-winery-pioneering-a-revival-for-a-former-favourite-of-aristocrats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/yorkshire\/news\/2117153-the-winery-pioneering-a-revival-for-a-former-favourite-of-aristocrats","title":{"rendered":"The winery pioneering a revival for a former favourite of aristocrats"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>This month&#8217;s expert wine review is from James Ratcliffe, co-owner of The Black Bull in Sedbergh\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The wines of Slovakia aren\u2019t what might be described as a go to area for many of us when it comes to wine. The truth is though that the country has been producing wine for centuries, supplying fine wines to the major European aristocratic courts, particularly in the 19th Century.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/wineclub.thebusinessdesk.com\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-2108192\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/_files\/images\/WINE-CLUB-STORY-SIZE-300x200.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/_files\/images\/WINE-CLUB-STORY-SIZE-300x200.png 300w, https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/_files\/images\/WINE-CLUB-STORY-SIZE-768x512.png 768w, https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/_files\/images\/WINE-CLUB-STORY-SIZE-200x133.png 200w, https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/_files\/images\/WINE-CLUB-STORY-SIZE-500x333.png 500w, https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/_files\/images\/WINE-CLUB-STORY-SIZE-600x400.png 600w, https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/_files\/images\/WINE-CLUB-STORY-SIZE.png 900w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>Despite that, several things got in the way of what was a burgeoning industry. War, diseased stock and industrialised production practices during the soviet period largely destroyed centuries of wine making tradition. Luckily for us there has been a renaissance in Slovakian wine making, with talent from the country and elsewhere making significant contributions to the revival of that wine making whilst fully embracing modern philosophies and methods.<\/p>\n<p>One of those pioneering this Slovakian revival is Zsolt S\u00fct\u00f3. His winery Strekov 1075, is named after the village in which it is located and the year in which the village was first recorded in ancient medieval manuscripts. Zsolt is a gentle giant, who takes a truly holistic approach to all of the wines he creates, harvesting by hand, minimum cellar intervention and avoiding sulphur as much as possible.<\/p>\n<p>Fred is one of the winery\u2019s most popular wines, a unique blend of local grapes; Blauer Portugieser, Alibernet &amp; Dunaj. Fred X, his latest batch, and what first stands out is the deep red, almost blood like colour of the wine through the clear bottle, and the distinctive crown seal cap, just like those you find on beer bottles.<\/p>\n<p>This gives you the first inkling of what the is about, it screams drink me soon and don\u2019t take me too seriously. When you pour this wine you are instantly hit with super juicy earthiness, and just enough funkiness to set the wine apart from everything else out there. It\u2019s so easy drinking, something you could pass round a group of friends, while you laugh, joke or share a philosophical thought or two, whilst fully enjoying the moment.<\/p>\n<p>Yet when you take the time to sit back and really think about this wine, you can\u2019t help but reflect on its true complexity, it actually starts to creep through to more you reflect, the fruit flavours, the spice, the way it comes together making it the complete package.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s something about Zsolti\u2019s wine that you just can\u2019t put your finger on, no matter how hard you try. I haven\u2019t had a wine that he\u2019s produced that I haven\u2019t thoroughly enjoyed. His belief is that wine was always a mystery, a fermentation process that created a great drink, and his view as a result is that it shouldn\u2019t be controlled.<\/p>\n<p>Modern wine production has become about recreating the same wine each time, which takes away the mystery, and can only be repeated with a lot of intervention. Zsolti believes we should all understand nature a little better, take nothing away from the natural wine making process and as a result let wines sing for themselves and develop in the way they want to develop. I suppose in a rather simplistic way if we don\u2019t open our minds to this idea, then there is a distinct chance that we\u2019ll never really enjoy his wine for what it is and should be?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/barriquefinewines.com\/product\/howard-john-2020-lourens-family-wines-hemel-en-aarde\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-2117136\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/_files\/images\/nov_23\/BARRIQUE-15-OFF-300x38.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"38\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/_files\/images\/nov_23\/BARRIQUE-15-OFF-300x38.png 300w, https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/_files\/images\/nov_23\/BARRIQUE-15-OFF-200x26.png 200w, https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/_files\/images\/nov_23\/BARRIQUE-15-OFF.png 468w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This month&#8217;s expert wine review is from James Ratcliffe, co-owner of The Black Bull in Sedbergh\u00a0 The wines of Slovakia aren\u2019t what might be described&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":2117154,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[120901],"coauthors":[65],"class_list":["post-2117153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wine-club"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The winery pioneering a revival for a former favourite of aristocrats | TheBusinessDesk.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This month&#039;s expert wine review is from James Ratcliffe, co-owner of The Black Bull in Sedbergh\u00a0 The wines of Slovakia aren\u2019t what might be described as a\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/yorkshire\/news\/2117153-the-winery-pioneering-a-revival-for-a-former-favourite-of-aristocrats\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The winery pioneering a revival for a former favourite of aristocrats | TheBusinessDesk.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This month&#039;s expert wine review is from James Ratcliffe, co-owner of The Black Bull in Sedbergh\u00a0 The wines of Slovakia aren\u2019t what might be described as a\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/yorkshire\/news\/2117153-the-winery-pioneering-a-revival-for-a-former-favourite-of-aristocrats\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Yorkshire\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-11-24T11:24:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-11-27T11:17:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/_files\/images\/nov_23\/James-wine-3-e1700824959924.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"545\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"363\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"TheBusinessDesk.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"TheBusinessDesk.com\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/yorkshire\/news\/2117153-the-winery-pioneering-a-revival-for-a-former-favourite-of-aristocrats\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/yorkshire\/news\/2117153-the-winery-pioneering-a-revival-for-a-former-favourite-of-aristocrats\",\"name\":\"The winery pioneering a revival for a former favourite of aristocrats | TheBusinessDesk.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/yorkshire\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/yorkshire\/news\/2117153-the-winery-pioneering-a-revival-for-a-former-favourite-of-aristocrats#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/yorkshire\/news\/2117153-the-winery-pioneering-a-revival-for-a-former-favourite-of-aristocrats#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/_files\/images\/nov_23\/James-wine-3-e1700824959924.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-11-24T11:24:29+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-11-27T11:17:56+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/yorkshire\/#\/schema\/person\/733052a95607308b59463484e343f497\"},\"description\":\"This month's expert wine review is from James Ratcliffe, co-owner of The Black Bull in Sedbergh\u00a0 The wines of Slovakia aren\u2019t what might be described as a\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/yorkshire\/news\/2117153-the-winery-pioneering-a-revival-for-a-former-favourite-of-aristocrats#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/yorkshire\/news\/2117153-the-winery-pioneering-a-revival-for-a-former-favourite-of-aristocrats\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/yorkshire\/news\/2117153-the-winery-pioneering-a-revival-for-a-former-favourite-of-aristocrats#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/_files\/images\/nov_23\/James-wine-3-e1700824959924.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/_files\/images\/nov_23\/James-wine-3-e1700824959924.jpeg\",\"width\":545,\"height\":363,\"caption\":\"James Ratcliffe, co-owner of The Black Bull in Sedburgh\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/yorkshire\/news\/2117153-the-winery-pioneering-a-revival-for-a-former-favourite-of-aristocrats#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/yorkshire\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The winery pioneering a revival for a former favourite of aristocrats\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/yorkshire\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/yorkshire\/\",\"name\":\"Yorkshire\",\"description\":\"Regional business news for Yorkshire\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/yorkshire\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/yorkshire\/#\/schema\/person\/733052a95607308b59463484e343f497\",\"name\":\"TheBusinessDesk.com\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/yorkshire\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/08354214240d943bd207c387edabaddd\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4b8e2a8f59b5c7f7467cd65dd7a600a4?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4b8e2a8f59b5c7f7467cd65dd7a600a4?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"TheBusinessDesk.com\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/yorkshire\/news\/author\/thebusinessdesk\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The winery pioneering a revival for a former favourite of aristocrats | TheBusinessDesk.com","description":"This month's expert wine review is from James Ratcliffe, co-owner of The Black Bull in Sedbergh\u00a0 The wines of Slovakia aren\u2019t what might be described as a","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/yorkshire\/news\/2117153-the-winery-pioneering-a-revival-for-a-former-favourite-of-aristocrats","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"The winery pioneering a revival for a former favourite of aristocrats | TheBusinessDesk.com","og_description":"This month's expert wine review is from James Ratcliffe, co-owner of The Black Bull in Sedbergh\u00a0 The wines of Slovakia aren\u2019t what might be described as a","og_url":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/yorkshire\/news\/2117153-the-winery-pioneering-a-revival-for-a-former-favourite-of-aristocrats","og_site_name":"Yorkshire","article_published_time":"2023-11-24T11:24:29+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-11-27T11:17:56+00:00","og_image":[{"width":545,"height":363,"url":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/_files\/images\/nov_23\/James-wine-3-e1700824959924.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"TheBusinessDesk.com","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"TheBusinessDesk.com","Estimated reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/yorkshire\/news\/2117153-the-winery-pioneering-a-revival-for-a-former-favourite-of-aristocrats","url":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/yorkshire\/news\/2117153-the-winery-pioneering-a-revival-for-a-former-favourite-of-aristocrats","name":"The winery pioneering a revival for a former favourite of aristocrats | TheBusinessDesk.com","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/yorkshire\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/yorkshire\/news\/2117153-the-winery-pioneering-a-revival-for-a-former-favourite-of-aristocrats#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/yorkshire\/news\/2117153-the-winery-pioneering-a-revival-for-a-former-favourite-of-aristocrats#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/_files\/images\/nov_23\/James-wine-3-e1700824959924.jpeg","datePublished":"2023-11-24T11:24:29+00:00","dateModified":"2023-11-27T11:17:56+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/yorkshire\/#\/schema\/person\/733052a95607308b59463484e343f497"},"description":"This month's expert wine review is from James Ratcliffe, co-owner of The Black Bull in Sedbergh\u00a0 The wines of Slovakia aren\u2019t what might be described as a","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/yorkshire\/news\/2117153-the-winery-pioneering-a-revival-for-a-former-favourite-of-aristocrats#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/yorkshire\/news\/2117153-the-winery-pioneering-a-revival-for-a-former-favourite-of-aristocrats"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/yorkshire\/news\/2117153-the-winery-pioneering-a-revival-for-a-former-favourite-of-aristocrats#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/_files\/images\/nov_23\/James-wine-3-e1700824959924.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/_files\/images\/nov_23\/James-wine-3-e1700824959924.jpeg","width":545,"height":363,"caption":"James Ratcliffe, co-owner of The Black Bull in Sedburgh"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/yorkshire\/news\/2117153-the-winery-pioneering-a-revival-for-a-former-favourite-of-aristocrats#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/yorkshire\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The winery pioneering a revival for a former favourite of aristocrats"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/yorkshire\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/yorkshire\/","name":"Yorkshire","description":"Regional business news for Yorkshire","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/yorkshire\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/yorkshire\/#\/schema\/person\/733052a95607308b59463484e343f497","name":"TheBusinessDesk.com","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/yorkshire\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/08354214240d943bd207c387edabaddd","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4b8e2a8f59b5c7f7467cd65dd7a600a4?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4b8e2a8f59b5c7f7467cd65dd7a600a4?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"TheBusinessDesk.com"},"url":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/yorkshire\/news\/author\/thebusinessdesk"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/yorkshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2117153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/yorkshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/yorkshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/yorkshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/yorkshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2117153"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/yorkshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2117153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2117230,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/yorkshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2117153\/revisions\/2117230"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/yorkshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2117154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/yorkshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2117153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/yorkshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2117153"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/yorkshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=2117153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}