Zuzana Barnáková Winery
I see wine growing as a universe of changeability. It’s a great lesson of accepting what’s beyond my abilities to change as well as becoming aware of my own limits. The cycle of days. Of the Sun, joy, fears, hard work, success and failure, abundance, gratefulness, anger and respect. It’s a way to satisfy my desire for a pure and diverse country and high quality foods. And most of all: responsibility for a piece of land I may cultivate.
I’m trying to have a minimalist approach towards winemaking. I realize that I can interfere in the whole process of grapes becoming wine to a different extend and influence the result of the process. I believe that the best has accumulated in the grapes even before I approached them in the cellar. That’s why my winemaking goal is to accept and make kinds of wine that are spontaneous, casual, alive, and changeable. Underline the beauty of the crop and interfere in the process as little as possible. I sincerely wish to give them enough time to ripe, develop their potential, and mature. In their own pace. Patience and trust are the virtues I’m attaining with them. They teach me to accept myself just as I accept my wines. With an open mind and a heart full of love.
I’m cultivating in a vineyard in Rača - Bratislava. I’m making wine in a family cellar in Malacky. The first vintage with a commercial purpose is the 2017 vintage. I introduced my winemaking to the world in the summer of 2021.
Vintages
2024
A winter like any other—filled with small illnesses in between pruning, which, as usual, we’re struggling to finish within the ideal agrotechnical timeframe. But things start getting interesting in the spring. We get the opportunity to take over additional vineyard plots. Ideal grape varieties, ones I had only dreamed of being self-sufficient in. In a nightmarish state. Nearly four more hectares in total. I find myself facing a question: Should I turn this hobby into my main profession and source of income? This is an opportunity that doesn’t come around often in our Little Carpathian region, near Svätý Jur. I start defining in my mind why I should and why I shouldn’t. What are my inner fears and worries? Which of them can I actively tackle and work through? I give it a hesitant yes—a yes filled with many question marks and concerns. But for now, at least I am aware of them and can name them. I still have over a year left of my maternity leave, so hopefully, things will become clearer by then. For now, I have new vineyard plots, and the adventure begins. We buy a tractor. Oh, the experiences with the tractor—I’ll tell you those stories in person, as they’re an endless source of laughter, sometimes even through tears.
I’d love to say we spent the summer in Sicily, but the reality is we managed to sneak away for a long weekend. Arianna, a winemaker I had been eager to visit, was a great inspiration to me. Her story, in the context of my current situation, is almost terrifying. She also started with just one hectare, and now she manages over 70 hectares of vineyards, orchards, and farmland. This insanely hot year, she began harvesting as early as the beginning of August. During the flight back from Sicily, I kept thinking about our upcoming harvest. When we returned home, we had to act fast. The grapes had reached a ripeness that left no room for waiting. We rallied our friends, who traded their air-conditioned offices for our hottest harvest days. I’m so proud of you and so grateful to have you! I opted for a shorter maceration, and everything happened in a blur. It was hot, everything moved so quickly. I was walking a fine line—things could have gone either way—overripe grapes waiting for containers that were still being emptied, pressing in between freeing up barrels and bottling. The world belongs to those who are prepared, and at that moment, I definitely wasn’t. It was short and intense. At a time when harvest season usually just begins, I already had everything fermented and pressed.
Emka started going to daycare a few days a week. This gave me more free hands, and I started feeling like myself again. I found time for both manual and creative work. I opened myself up more to meetings and community life. I wished for more encounters in my days, and they started happening. We hosted our first event, Dokvasilo!, in our garden. I met new people and reconnected with familiar faces, smiling at how my wishes were coming true. I am now preparing my three wines from the 2022 vintage for market release. It’s the year with my smallest production. During that harvest, Em was just a few weeks old, and I didn’t have the inner strength to be a winemaker. The three barrels I managed to create back then exist thanks to my incredibly supportive husband, who believed in me and knew I would regret missing that vintage. And he was right. So much has changed since then!
I create:
Pinot Noir Rosé
Welschriesling
Grüner Veltliner
Riesling
Pinot Gris
Cabernet Sauvignon
Pinot is love (Vajnory + Milovín)
