The wine comes from Banoštor on Fruška Gora, in Srem, a region in the north of the country. Today a mountain, up to a million years ago Fruška Gora was an island in the Pannonian Sea, a shallow inland sea that covered much of what are now Hungary and large parts of present-day Serbia, Croatia, Slovakia and Romania. Today that former island rises above the flat Pannonian plain, while the Danube below acts as both climatic moderator and mirror, reflecting extra light back onto the vineyards and helping the grapes ripen more steadily. On the slopes of Milino brdo, Bikicki's vineyard site, the key soils are gajnjača (clay-rich brown soil) and smonica (heavy clay soil), with some krečnjak (limestone), a mix that helps give the wines both aromatic intensity and structural tension.
The man behind the label, Đorđe Bikicki, is one of the better-known names in the new generation of Serbian wine. He did not come into wine through the usual cellar-school or standard oenology-school routes. Before founding his winery, he was known in Belgrade as a drum-and-bass DJ, while wine entered his life through his father and uncle, who were already involved in vineyards and grape growing. In 2013 he launched his own project and built it around organic fruit, minimal intervention and the idea that the vineyard should shape the wine more than cellar technique.
Oszkár Maurer, the winemaker Bikicki chose to work with, is one of the key figures in Serbia's low-intervention wine scene: an ethnic Hungarian from northern Serbia, a fourth-generation winegrower, and a producer who began making wine in 1994. His approach is built on organic farming, spontaneous fermentation, ageing on the lees, very low or no added sulphur, and a strong focus on letting old vineyards and local varieties speak for themselves. He is especially known for reviving rare grapes such as Sremska Zelenika, Bakator and Medenac Mali, while his Kadarka 1880 is widely regarded as his signature wine. Bikicki first encountered Maurer's wines at BeoWine Fair in 2011, met him properly soon afterwards, and in 2013 asked to work with him when he decided to make wines in a more natural style. Maurer agreed immediately, and that collaboration became one of the foundations of Bikicki's early identity.
Moma is one of the most personal wines in the range because it is named after Bikicki's father, Momčilo, known by the common Serbian nickname Moma. The wine is made from Traminac crveni, a pink-skinned white variety, from the Milino brdo site, a southwest-facing vineyard about two kilometres from the Danube. It is harvested by hand, featuring short skin contact of about sixteen hours, spontaneous fermentation and ageing in ceramic vessels. That puts the wine in a very precise stylistic space: more textured and phenolic than a conventional aromatic white, but more controlled and cleaner than many louder skin-contact wines.
The 2021 Moma feels like a more relaxed chapter of the story. While later releases became more intense and got more hype, this vintage shows a gentler side of the Fruška Gora Traminer — the balance is softer and rounder, without the sharp bite of the drier versions that came after.
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