Wines Of Slovenia

Slovenia produces some of my favourite wines and some of them are of a quality that can rival the best of France, Italy and Spain. I have written up my wine notes from all the good times that I have spent enjoying Slovenia and its viticultural treasures. If you come across their wines in the import market then do not hesitate to try them.

Wines of Slovenia

11)      Primorje Region

On the Italian Border and Istrian Peninsular balanced climate which is moderated by the Mediterranean.

The best wines come from this region and some of the best wines I have ever drunk come from these producers. I prefer the reds. There is very much an Italian influence. Surface of vineyards is around 6,500 ha

1a) Goriška Brda area:

Movia is probably the best producer of Red and White Wines in Slovenia.  Movia have wine bar in Ljubljana stocking wines from all over Slovenia and the best wines of Europe.

Marjan Simčič, Edi Simčič, Ščurek, Jakončič and Bagueri are top producers. Red Varietals are Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Modri Pinot (Pinot Noir): also Chardonnay (Bagueri).   Best reds are full bodied, rich in fruit taste, concentrated and complex with long length on the palate. Best wines will keep for a long time. They have a good balanced structure for tannin, acid and alcohol.

Rebula is the most characteristic white wine of the area and is similar in style to Collio region Ribolla Gialla. Movia is probably the best producer of these whites. It is the most widely grown grape of the region sometimes used for “Passito” wines or Pikolit wines as they are known in the area. Aromatic wines some are as sweet as late harvested wines.

Vines are grown on terraces on the slopes of the lower mountains. Soil is mostly marls and shale and sandstone.

Try Kmetija “Poezija” semi-sweet wine made from dried Rebula grapes 17% alcohol. It tastes of fruits, honey and it has a type of “flor” which grows on the wine surface which prevents oxidation- Fino style.

1b) Kras area:

The Karst white limestone rocks provide good soil for vine growing. Some of the soils have high iron content. Vineyards are on flat topology or gently sloping.

The most famous wine is Teran (a special variety of the Refošk grapes) red whose vines are grown on Terra Rossa soil. Vegetal and berry fruit tasting wines these wines are said to have medicinal properties and I can believe it.

Also Refošk or Rifosco grapes are grown here and which are blended into the red wines or produced as varietal wines.

Čotar is one of the top producers; their Kras Terra Rosa is a blend of Teran, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon is a top wine which easily competes with French and Italian reds. It is characteristic of the area.

Other top producers are Boris Lisjak and Renčel

Best for red wines but some whites are produced from Malvasia, Prosecco, Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay.

1c) Koper Area:

Situated on the Istrian peninsular Koper produces mainly red wines and Refošk is the predominant grape. Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc are also grown.

The best producers are Santomas, Vinakoper and Brič.

1d) Vipava:

The vines are grown in the Vipava valley which borders on Goriška Brda. Both white and red wines are produced. My favourites are the reds. The best reds are made from Barbera, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot grapes.

The best whites are made from Malvazija (Malvasia) Rebula, Sauvignon Blanc and Beli Pinot (or Pinot Blanc) grapes.

One of my favourite producers is Vipava 1894 (Lanthieri) which is also the area’s biggest producer. Top producers include Batič, Tilia and Sutor.

22)      Podravje Region

In my opinion the second best wines come from this area. The wines are better known in Western Europe; Ljutomer-Ormož wines were popular in Britain in the 1970s and 1980s. The vineyards are positioned on the river Drava and run down to the border with Croatia.

 Maribor is reputed to have the oldest vine living vine in Europe. The vine produces 35 litres of wine per year.

The Austrian influence is apparent in this region. This is the largest wine region with over 10,000 hectares under vines.

2a) Maribor area

The vineyards are the coolest of the region. Vines are grown on quartz rich clays and marls. There are vineyards in the city of Maribor. The area is best for its aromatic white wines especially Laški Rizling and Renski Rizling (Welch Riesling and Rhein Riesling respectively). The area also produces reds the best is from the Modri Pinot (Pinot Noir) grape. The Vinag Cellars are the largest in central Europe with 20,000 square metres of cellars with 7,000,000 litres of wine capacity. Vinag cellars are also known as Maribor Wine Tabernacle.

Best producers are Joannes, Gaube, Meranovo, Vinag, Zupan, Očkerl, – Šipon (Furmint) Ice Wine

Biggest producer: Vinag which also produces good wine.

2b) Haloze

It has a similar climate to Maribor vies are gown on terraces alongside the Drava river. The area is more famous for White wine and the best white wine is the Renski Rizling which goes well with Zander and Pike caught in the local rivers. Most of the wine is cellared in Ptuj where there are good restaurants to enjoy the white wine and super fresh river fish.

Best Producers are Kokot, Turčan and Skaza

Biggest producer is Vinarstvo Slovenske gorice-Haloze

2c) Ljutomer-Ormož

This area lies between the confluence of the Drava and Mura rivers. The summers are hot but there is rarely scorching heat or drought.  There is a balanced climate for viticulture. This is my favourite area of the Podravje. Much of the area borders on Croatia.

It is a legend of the area that the crusaders arrived in Ormož and believed it to be the holy land and decided to stay and drink wine rather than go and fight. This seems to be the sensible decision.

Jeruzalem–Ormož is a special area which produces some wonderful white wines and some lovely sparkling wine. Beli Pinot or (Pinot Blanc) produces the best wines which are fruity but well balanced. The area is also famous for Šipon which made from the local grape this is an acid rich white wine with an elegant bouquet.

Ljutomer whites were rather popular in Britain in the late 1970s and 1980s but they are not of the same high quality of Jeruzalem wines.

The best producers are Jeruzalem–Ormož, Kranjc, čurin

The biggest producer is Jeruzalem–Ormož

Ormož has some very large cellars.

2d) Other Areas of the Podravje

I have either not tasted wines from these areas or not found them notable: Radgona–Kapela, Srednje Slovenska Gorice, šmarje – Virštajn and Prekmurske Gorice

33)      Posavje

This region borders the river Sava which flows past but not through the capital Ljubljana. I have not found the wines of this region particularly noticeable even though there has been a French influence.

However, some good ice wines (ledeno vino) are produced in the region from the Laški Rizling white grape some of these rival wines from the Podravje.

Most growers blend their wines. There are many local growers who tend to be individualistic. There was much emigration to the US during the phylloxera crisis in the 19^th Century. The soil is varied with marls, clays and sandstones.

7,500 hectares are under vines.

3a) Dolensjska Area

This area is renowned for Cviček which is a blend of red and white wine and which is made by many proud family producers and “hobbyists”. It is considered as impolite to refuse a glass whenever and wherever it is offered- the families are proud of their wine.

Dolenjsko Belo is a white wine made from a blend of grapes including: Laški Rizling, Suavignon Blanc, Beli Pinot and Rumeni Plavec. It is supposed to be good for rheumatism and kidney stones.

The best wines are the late harvested Laški Rizling and Sauvignon Blanc based whites.

Best producers Martinčič, Frelih and Planinc

3b) Other Areas

Bela Krajina and Bizeljsko-Sremič- I have not tried wines from this area.

44)      Quality Terms

Namizno vino - table wine

Kakovostno vino – Quality wine with protected geographical location – IGP

Vrhunsko vino – AOC or AOP.

Predicate wines

Pozna trgatev - Spätlese

Izbor – Auslese

Jagodni izbor – Beerenauslese

Suhi jagodni izbor  - Trockene Beerenauslese.

  

55)      Other Terms

Arhivsko vino – Classico and Reserva

Mlado vino – young wine

Peneče vino- sparkling

Suho – very dry or brut

Polsuho - semi dry

Polsladko –semi-sweet

Sladko – Sweet

66)      Photos

Europe’s oldest vine in Maribor

Jeruzalem–Ormož vineyards

Rosbif de Cheval or Roast Horse Meat and red wine

The other night, while we were watching France go through to the final 16 of the world cup, my wife cooked a rosbif de cheval. This is of course horse meat.  Most of our British friends baulk at the thought of eating horse meat but some are adventurous enough to try it.

Even though most British people will turn their nose up at the thought of eating a horse, many of them will have eaten it and enjoyed it without knowing. The horse meat scandal of 2013 saw horse meat entering into the European food chain but dressed up as beef.

Some supermarket hamburgers were often made from horse meat and the public enjoyed them without knowing that they were not beef. Horse meat also ended up in pies and lasagne etc. It also ended up in some supermarket pâté and sausages. Some unscrupulous butchers and meat suppliers had passed off cheaper horse meat as beef. The supermarket buyers were unable to tell the difference even if they saw or tasted the meat or meat products.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21765737

http://www.iga.net/fr/recettes_inspirantes/burger_a_la_viande_chevaline_et_au_fromage_fe/

We cooked the genuine horse meat joint in the same way as we would cook a joint of beef. It was rare and roasted with a generous knob of butter and an onion with some white wine to produce a sauce which was seasoned with salt and pepper. It is just was delicious as beef bit but it tasted a little sweeter.

We washed down the rosbif de cheval with a bottle of Gérard Bertrand Syrah/Carignan, Minervois red wine from the Languedoc  in the South of France. It went perfectly with the meat and the generous tannin refreshed the palate. It was superb wine at a price of £9.99  a bottle and Waitrose had discounted it by 20% so it was even better value for money. This is one of my favourite wines and my team and I enjoyed it in one of our favourite restaurants in Hamburg; it was always on the menu even if horse meat was not.

Gérard Bertrand is a former French international rugby player so this wine is one up for the players and supporters of the real football. I wonder why rugby players do not writhe on the ground from much harder tackles than that they would would receive in a "soccer" game. Perhaps a good bottle of a full bodied red gives them strength. Rugby players are instructed by their coaches to get up immediately after a tackle and not act like babies.

We have tried to find butchers in England which sell horse meat without any luck and after the scandal it is now impossible to buy it in a British supermarket. I suspect, however, that it still enters the food chain if only by accident. Supermarkets in France sell it and there are specialised butchers too. Many other European countries serve horse meat and most people have no qualms about eating it. Luckily, it is easy to find a good bottle of Minervois red in Britain.

You can buy horse meat here, however:

http://www.exoticmeats.co.uk/horse-meat.html

http://www.waitrose.com/shop/ProductView-10317-10001-94592-G%C3%A9rard+Bertrand+Syrah/Carignan,+Minervois+South+of+France

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/jan/17/how-to-cook-horsemeat-three-thrifty-recipes

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2409371/ALEX-RENTON-The-real-horsemeat-scandal-greedy-ruthless-supermarkets-got-scot-free.html

Evolution White and Red - Planet of the Grapes

Last week I ate  an excellent, tasty and substantial lunch at the Taberna Etrusca Italian restaurant in the City of London with a good friend. We washed it down with a bottle of Rioja. Why Rioja in an Italian restaurant? You may well ask this; well the waiter recommended it and it was jolly good too.

Naturally, after a lot of talk about politics, religion and wine the subject turned to football. Spain, Italy and England have been eliminated. It is a good job that Spanish and Italian wines can hold up a good long term reputation that out classes the football. France is still going strong and has produced moments of Champagne football. As for England, well improvements are needed all round.

An Italian player was sent off for a head high tackle on a Uruguayan player and Suarez the "footballing genius", who had single-handedly defeated England, was banned after biting an Italian opponent in the same match. Suarez was lucky not to have been sent off too and of course the weakened Italian side were defeated. Perhaps the Uruguayan and Italian footballers should be sent on a wine course where they can learn how to act with decorum rather than violence.

After our meal we decided to decamp to Planet of the Grapes just down the road for a quick glass of wine before heading home.

The waitress spotted that we were after drinking something different from French, Italian and Spanish wine and suggested Evolution White which is produced by the Sokol Blosser Winery  in the hills of Oregon. The wine staff in Planet of the Grapes are very knowledgeable about wine and they know what they are talking about. So naturally we discussed the grape varieties and the climate and of course the quality of the wine.

Evolution White is made from nine varieties of grapes: Pinot Gris, Müller-Thurgau, Riesling, Sémillon, Muscat Canelli, Gewürztraminer, Pinot Blanc, Chardonnay and Sylvaner.

Riesling, Gewürztraminer and Sémillon are used to make some of the world's finest sweet and dry white wines. Riesling and Gewürztraminer achieve their best expression in Alsace and Germany and late harvested grapes in both regions are used to make the finest sweet white wines. Sémillon is used to make the finest sweet white wines in the Bordeaux region of France - Sauternes.

Late harvested grapes dry out and wither on the vines to concentrate the sugars in the grapes. In the Bordeaux region Sémillon grapes are exposed to noble rot which also withers the grapes to produce grapes with high sugar levels.

The Evolution White wine was semi-sweet but any sweetness was well balanced by the acidity. The wine had a tangy, spicy and fruity taste which lingered long on the palate. It is wine which is of genuine high quality. The wine had its own distinct taste which is one of the hallmarks of a very good wine.

It is the perfect aperitif  but it would also go well with desserts that have a hint of spice. It is best enjoyed with food but we enjoyed it on its own with conversation.

The waitress also gave us a taste of the Evolution Red which is made from  Syrah (or Shiraz), Montepulciano and Sangiovese red wine grapes blended with a little of the Evolution white wine. This wine is spicy and fruity and of course will go well with food.

Sokol Blosser also make make wine from the Pinot Noir varietal and I suspect that this wine will be exceptionally good as the Pinot Noir grape grows well in the cool climate offered by the Dundee Hills of Oregon.

Sokol and Blosser have produced wines with a winning formula here and they deserve all the success they can get. These wines can compete favourably with many top European wines. I recommend them highly.

http://www.sokolblosser.com/about/history.html