Off the Beaten Track

Part III - Tasting Notes

Finally, here are some of the wines I tasted during my travels:


Wine: Mezzek
Producer: Katarzyna Estate
Vintage: 2009
Origin: Tharcian Valley, Bulgaria
Grape(s): Chardonnay
Price: 15PLN (£3.20)

A great cheap Chardonnay with a lovely Burgundian streak of flinty minerallity. Nothing too special, but way more fun than most Chardonnay at twice the price back home.



Wine: Ragusa
Producer: Dubrovacki Podrumi
Vintage: 2009
Origin: Gruda, Croatia
Grape(s): Maraština
Price: Unknown

A medium golden colour, this had youthful aromas of lemon zest and green apple, with a lovely whiff of nettles and green grass. The palate showed more pronounced tropical flavours moving through some vegetal notes to a juicy apple finish. Not bad length and lingering acidity. Complex and quite unusual.



Wine: Matus
Producer: Vina Vukas
Vintage: 2008
Origin: Ponikve, Croatia
Grape(s): Plavac Mali
Price: Unknown

Plavac Mali is said to be a close relative of Zinfandel. Maybe if you took some Zinf to the fiery centre of the earth and back, dragged it kicking and screaming through a tar-pit and threw it a few ‘your mother’s so fat’ insults then you might come close to this. Straight up I could see this was a big wine - deep, deep garnet with syrupy legs. Rich, earthy and spicy aromas were the precursor to a similarly dark, tannic and intense palate. Great wine, but not for the faint-hearted.



Wine: Tiblisi Iveriuli
Producer: Tbilvino
Vintage: 2009
Origin: Kakheti, Georgia
Grape(s): Rkatsiteli
Price: 24 PLN (£5.11)

A fresh and youthful white, bone dry with some interesting and unusual fruit character. Did I mention dry? Really, bone dry. Tbilvino picked up some medals at IWSC recently and this seems like an entry level effort, so I’d love to try their higher end stuff.



Wine: Bertram, Egri Cuvee
Producer: Thummerer
Vintage: 2001
Origin: Eger, Hungary
Grape(s): Blauburger, Gamay, Kékoportó
Price: 34PLN (£7.24)

Deep garnet, browning towards the rim. Developed aromas of dried dark fruits, mushroom, and game. Herby and savoury with the slightest oxidation. Initial burst of sweet dark cherry on the palate moves through all the savoury notes of the nose, with more fragrant herbs, firm tannins and a surprisingly juicy and complex finish. Retaining good acidity for its age, with no signs of tiredness yet.



Wine: Maria Anna Cuvee
Producer: Winnicy Maria Anna
Vintage: 2009
Origin: Czudec, Poland
Grape(s): Blend of Polish varietals.
Price: 35PLN (£7.45)

Very pronounced youthful aromas of underripe tropical fruit, marred with a hint of ‘cat-pee’. Gooseberry flavours gave up quickly, leaving only heartburn levels of acidity. A little more bottle age may help, but not likely. Two or more glasses would probably give you an ulcer.



Wine: Ventus Laški Rizling
Producer: Vipava
Vintage: 2006
Origin: Vipava Valley, Slovenia
Grape(s): Laški Rizling (Welschriesling)
Price: 30 PLN (£6.39)

Fantastically exotic Riesling, with floral, fresh fruit and sweet spice aromas. The palate was just off-dry with a great fresh acidity. Fruit character was still gorgeously apparent, and I really wished I had brought more of these back, to drink over the next 5 to 10 years.

  

Off the Beaten Track

Part II - Guerrilla Wine Tours in Poland

So my wife is from Krosno - a medium sized town in the Carpathian region of southeast Poland. We go there maybe twice a year to visit family. The region is known to have some tradition of growing grapes and making wine (in fact a Scot, one Robert Gilbert Porteous of Dalkieth made his fame as a wholesale wine trader on behalf of the Polish king in the early 17th century. His portrait can still be seen in the church in Krosno) but I had thus far been unable to tap the surface of this slowly fermenting industry. None of the regions wines are readily available in shops, and i had never seen or heard of any producers in particular. This trip, for the sake of my dear readers, was going to be different.

The first and most obvious port of call was the local wine shop in Krosno - a great little shop called Wino Przyjaciele or 'Wine and Friends' where I found the very keen and helpful Adam. When asked about the local wine, Adam told me "We have a problem. To buy Podkarpacki Wino you must spend about 90zł (£20) which is enough for a nice Barolo, and it's not so good." That explained why I'd never seen it in shops but didn’t get me very far forward in my quest.

Next, some internet research pinpointed a few nearby vineyards so off we went. We drove around a while. These were small villages of big houses with small patches of corn, sunflowers on their land. On the edge of the village of Jedlicze we stopped and asked a man in a smart suit who was walking into the village if he knew of a vineyard locally. He did, and promptly jumped in the car beside us. The address we had was indeed a vineyard. Of sorts. Three rows of vines, maybe three plants on each then a washing line, then a house. No luck.

After some more roaming around and another unsuccessful visit to someone’s house, we finally got lucky. Off the road out of Jasło, up on the hill was a sizable looking patch of nice bushy green vines. There was no winery. There wasn't even a sign, but the gate was unlocked so we went in. 

 A sandy clay south-facing slope, about the size of a football field, sheltered by hills to the north and thick trees on each side. A pretty place. Frustrating as it was to have no information whatsoever, it really was great to be amongst the vines. There seemed to be a lot of experimentation, with almost every row of vines varying in grape variety or training method or canopy management. Some old vines, some young, some high yields, some low. Being mid July, veraison had not yet occurred and so I couldn't tell if any red grapes were amongst those planted.

I left with the satisfaction that someone in the region was seriously growing grapes - but where was the wine? I hoped the upcoming Winna Góra 2011 wine festival would yield some results.

The festival was a showcase of two vineyards – one Austrian and one Hungarian – hosted by the guys from Wino Przyjaciele in Krosno. The setup was interesting: a deposit was paid for a glass then you paid to taste each wine. Unfortunately this meant using the same glass for all wines and full glasses were poured making it fairly difficult to seriously taste the wines. It was lots of fun though and while I tried some nice stuff, I won't go into too much detail about the wines here.

Then finally, just as we were getting ready to leave I spotted it… Polish wine! For sale! Produced locally! I snapped it up. I had trailed around the region searching high and low for the local plonk and at last, two days before my flight back to Edinburgh, I had some.

How was it? I hear you ask. Look out for Part III – Tasting Notes very soon!

Off the Beaten Track

Part I - Old World Exploration

France, Italy, Spain. Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay. Classic European wines; classic wine producing countries.

Most oenophiles like myself will spend their whole lives familiarizing themselves with all the vineyards of Bordeaux and Burgundy, or learning the native Italian or Portuguese grape varieties. But stray just a little off the path and some of the less famous wine producing countries of Europe have a wealth of exciting wines to offer, with indigenous grape varieties, unique micro-climates and in many cases, hundreds of years of untouched tradition.

Problems with infrastructure, demands of the EU and major supermarkets insisting on importing only recognised varietals are just a few of the reasons many of the gems of Eastern and Central Europe remain hidden from all but the most vehement wine adventurer.

The rewards are there however, and a recent trip to that neck-of-the-woods allowed me the opportunity to taste some truly weird and wonderful things. Tasting notes will follow but first let's take a quick look at the countries I vinously visited on my tasting travels:

Bulgaria: Famous in the late 70's for it's Cabernet Sauignon, Bulgaria has consistently steered its wine production towards the export market. Local varieties such as Mavrud and Pamid can be hard to come by, although this does seem to be changing, with winemakers increasingly turning their attention to native grapes.

Croatia: An important wine producer and a treasure trove of illusive indigenous varieties. The north shares climate, soils and some grape varieties with north east Italy, while further south on the dalmatian coast and up the steep slopes around Dubrovnik, Crljenak Kastelanski and Plavac Mali produce dense and potent reds. 

Georgia: Arguably the oldest wine producing region in the world. Archaeological evidence points to great reverence towards wine production 5,000 years ago. Pre-classical methods are still used in production, where wine is fermented in earthenware pots called kwevri which are buried in the ground. A major blow was dealt to the industry in 2006 when the Kremlin banned all Georgian wine imports.

Hungary: The legendary Tokaji aside, Hungary has much to offer - from golden spicy whites to full bodied 'Bulls-blood' reds. The majority of wine is produced on the great plain between the Danube and Tisza rivers, with Eger, Villany and Sopron also contributing.

Poland: Polish wine has a way to go, but interesting work is being done with Hybrids - varieties native to Canada are important due to their ability to withstand harsh winters. Close to the German border to the west of Wroclaw, and the Podkarpacki region to the southeast of the country offer occasional micro-climates suitable for fresh, acidic whites and light reds.

Slovenia: Borders with Italy, Austria and Hungary suggest Slovenia to be a perfect location for wine production. Primorska, on the coast, shows wines similar to those of Friuli with aromatic dry whites and firm but fresh reds. The Podravje region is the most respected however, with Laski Rizling and Sipon producing very high quality wines.


An exciting journey I hope you'll agree. Coming up in Parts II & III - Guerrilla Wine Tours in Poland and Tasting Notes!