Pivnica Cajkov - Princess

Marek Uhnák of Pivnica Čajkov has seen it all. Marek studied oenology at Mendel University,
Lednice, Czech Republic and has 20+ years of winemaking under his belt. His journey started
in conventional winemaking, but later, after realising that the true representation of the
local terroir is through low intervention methods, he switched to natural winemaking
processes, and we are very thankful for that :)
Pivnica Čajkov is located in the Čajkov village, in the Nitra wine region with its volcanic Sitno
terroir. Marek's vineyards are spread over the caldera hills formed by the eruption of the
Sitno stratovolcano. The vineyards grow on a bedrock of tuff (compressed volcanic ashes)
with just 20-30cm of topsoil. The tuff acts like a sponge, sucking in all the rain, so the vines
grow very deep root systems to reach the water and with it ingest enormous amounts of
minerals. These provide a mineral body and spine characteristic of the wines made from this
area.
Marek produces mostly single varietal wines with some 2 or 3 blends. The total production is
around 30,000 bottles per year.
All the wines are spontaneously fermented, with the majority aged in old oak barrels and
bottled with minimum or no added sulphites. The wines are unfined and unfiltered and are
all vegan.