Johannes Zwillinger - 'Numen' Fumé Blanc - 2021

Weinviertel, Austria

Peach - Elderflower - Hoeny - Smoke

The Numen Fumé blanc from Johannes Zillinger is an unfiltered, cloudy sauvignon blanc. 100% skin fermentation of de-stemmed, uncrushed Sauvignon Blanc in Gerogian amphorae for 2 weeks. After spending time in Amphora, the wine is aged in neutral barrels. The final result is a creamy white wine with great character, richness and complexity. A Sauvignon Blanc, reminiscent of the grand wines of the Silex soils of the Loire Valley. Johannes's NUMEN wines are his highest end and most awarded. This cuvée was even awarded 2020's Austrian wine of the year by Gault & Millau. 'Numen' denotes metaphysical activity and is an important concept in Zillinger's wines: These wines are almost without any intervention in the cellar. They are Zillinger's most natural and expressive and highly sought after. For these wines, Zillinger specially selects the best bunches of high-ripened grapes from their estate's oldest Sauvignon Blanc vines. After being de-stemmed, these precious grapes are fermented whole-berry in a cool earthen amphora for 18 months on the lees without intervention. The cool, slow, intracellular fermentation in the presence of skins and seeds but without any extractive cap management creates an extremely unique and delicious and dizzying wine. There is a textured density of phenolics quite unlike any Sauvignon Blanc you've had before. These wines are inspired by Zillinger's time spent studying ancient wine ways in Georgia. The Numen wines are truly bewitching dispatches from a brave vigneron. 16 months in amphorae. Unfined & unfiltered Lissen vineyard, 40+ years old, biodynamic, hand farmed. 208 cases.