The 2013 Jagini I had back in 2023 was one of the first truly serious bottles of Blaufränkisch that I drank on my journey through the world of wine. It was also my first time trying aged Blaufränkisch and it showed me how gracefully this varietal can age. Seeing as Blaufränkisch was back on my self imposed wine rotation, I reminisced on that wine and therefore decided to open the 2017 iteration of said bottle. Jagini is a collaborative effort of Roland Velich (Moric) and Hannes Schuster (Weingut Rosi Schuster), the wine grows on a parcel around the village of Zagersdorf to the south of Eisenstadt in Burgenland. The soil consists of a top layer of clay with sand and maritime limestone lying underneath it. After harvest the wine was fermented spontaneously and then aged for four years in large oak barrels. Afterwards it received some extended bottle ageing before being released in 2024.
Upon opening, the wine remained closed off, but already showed quite some depth on the palate. I therefore aerated it for four hours in a decanter. In the glass, the wine presents itself with an opaque ruby colour and garnet rim. Wafts of sloe berry, juniper and dark cherry caress my nose in the beginning. Savoury nuances take charge after a few moments, giving me notes of leather, bay leaf, wet earth and cracked black pepper. In its final moments, the wine shows an animalistic touch and lots of tight minerality. The palate continues this dance, here though the fruit notes are more red than dark and a stony minerality sits at the forefront. Beautifully fresh acidity and medium structured tannins give the wine an amazing mouthfeel. A long and complex finish then marks the wine's end, showing notes of dried herbs, sloe berry, wet earth, pepper and orange zest.
A long distance runner that can also show its stride on the shorter distances, if you handle him with the right approach. Compared to the older vintages of Jagini, this is definitely the most elegant one of the bottlings. To summarise things, the wine is very keen on not overstimulating you with its complexity, the contents are handed to you bite after bite. Top notch!
by an_empty_sad_bottle