Winery Mantič
A family winery founded by two wine lovers, Vlado and Slavka Mantič. In 2012, they decided to establish their winery and continue the tradition of wine production as their ancestors did in Tokaj.
History
In 1936, Július Onder (the great-grandfather of Slavka Mantič) received land on the Čierna hora hill in Čerhov, where he planted his first vineyard, thus creating the history of our family winery. He received this land from Count Szecsényi, for whom he worked for over 40 years. This vineyard was cultivated using the "head-trained" method, one of the most demanding cultivation techniques even today, as it requires manual care. Unfortunately, we lost this land during communism, but the land reforms of 2024 allowed us to return to it. In the near future, we plan to restore this vineyard.
During communism, Michal Takáč and Ján Auxt acquired additional vineyards, which they maintained, continuing the tradition of viticulture and winemaking in our family. We still care for these vineyards, and they are our oldest ones (about 60 years old).
The next generation was Slavka Mantičová, who inherited these lands and vineyards. In 2012, together with Vlado Mantič, they founded the Mantič winery. From that moment, they began bottling their wines. In 2014, they planted a new vineyard, expanding our winery. Among the varieties they planted were Furmint, Lipovina, Yellow Muscat, and Dunaj. In 2020, they planted another vineyard (currently our youngest), where they planted three clones of Furmint, Zéta, Welschriesling, and Soreli.
Vlado and Slavka have three children: Juraj, Ivana, and Ondrej. They are the future of our winery. Juraj is currently studying in the first year of his master's program at Mendel University in Brno at the Faculty of Horticulture, specializing in Viticulture and Oenology.
Our philozophy
Vlado and Slavka always wanted to drink wines that were not "commercial." Wines that did not contain any enzymes, noble yeasts, or high levels of free sulfur. They wanted to preserve traditional winemaking practices, just as their ancestors did.
Therefore, they focused on producing orange wines. Long maceration on the skins, gentle oxidation, and minimal sulfur during the aging of their wines were the main steps they followed. Later, they transitioned from aging wines in stainless steel tanks to wooden barrels. In 2018, they made their first orange wine, which aged in an oak barrique, and in 2020, they made their first wine using the sur-lie method, i.e., wine aged on the lees. This method requires even less sulfur. Their son Juraj, who took over the winemaking from them, continues to follow their principles and produces wine naturally. He puts a lot of effort and study into the production of orange wines to improve them further.
We care for the vineyards in the family in harmony with nature. They are managed under integrated production, but we incorporate elements of organic production. We spray a maximum of seven times, using sulfur and copper-based treatments, and we use green manure in every second row, mixing it with various herbs that are attractive to our bees. We do not use any pesticides or herbicides.
Vlado and Slavka experimented with making Tokaj selections in some vintages. Since we are from the Tokaj wine-growing region, they wanted to take advantage of this opportunity. However, they made these wines only using demi-johns and in small quantities.
The current winemaker, Juraj, wants to focus more on producing these wines and is studying extensively to better understand their production. The maceration of the berries with the young wines is already familiar to him, and his first vintage of 2022 is aging in his first Gonc barrel. His second passito selection is now being made from the 2024 vintage, which was very rich in berries.