Pivnica Čajkov

Čajkov village, the home of winemaker Marek Uhnák and his winery Pivnica Čajkov, is located in the Nitra wine region, within the volcanic Sitno terroir. 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 :)

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. 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 amount of minerals. These provide the body and spine characteristic of the wines made from this area.

Marek produces mostly single varietal wines with a couple of experimental blends which vary from vintage to vintage. The total production is around 18,000 bottles per year.

All of 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.