In the village of Strekov, in southern Slovakia where the flatlands give way to the sweeping Pannonian Plain, a former pumpkin-seed farmer named Zsolt Sütő has become one of the most important figures in Central European natural wine. His estate, named for the year 1075 AD when the village's existence was first committed to writing, is now a benchmark for uncompromising, zero-sulfur winemaking east of Vienna.
A Farmer Turned Philosopher
Zsolt Sütő grew up in a region where ninety percent of the population is of Hungarian descent, including himself. Before wine, he cultivated pumpkin seeds, a traditional crop of the Carpathian basin. He began acquiring vineyard land in 2002, converted to organic farming in 2009, switched to fully spontaneous fermentation in 2012, and by 2017 had committed to adding zero sulfur at any stage of production. That gradual, deliberate evolution reflects a thinker who moves at the pace of the soil.
Wooden Stakes and Ancient Varieties
Across 12 hectares, Zsolt has replaced metal trellising with hand-hewn wooden stakes cut from local forest, lowering the fruit to within a few inches of the earth. He believes this physical proximity to the ground intensifies the transmission of terroir. Vines are hand-worked and sprayed only with preparations of horsetail and chamomile. The vineyards are planted primarily to indigenous and historic varieties: Welschriesling, Grüner Veltliner, Portugieser, Blaufränkisch, and newer crossings like Alibernet, Dunaj, and Devín.
Zero-Zero in the Cellar
Fermentations run entirely on native yeasts in open-top tanks and barrels. Whites often receive extended skin contact, with certain cuvées aged under a film of flor yeast in the Georgian-inspired Kakheti method. Reds may be whole-bunch fermented or destemmed depending on the vintage. Nothing is fined, filtered, or chaptalised. The wines are bottled according to the lunar calendar, by gravity, with as little disturbance as possible.
Mentor and Catalyst
Zsolt is widely credited with encouraging the founders of other Slovak natural wine estates, telling young would-be vignerons simply: do not be afraid. His wines now travel to Japan, Denmark, the UK, and the United States, carrying a village's name from the eleventh century into the twenty-first.
