Archive for the ‘wine’ Category
Jancis Robinson on Slovenian wines
Better late than never. Just found an article published more than a year-and-a-half ago by renowned wine writer and critic Jancis Robinson, but still quite useful.
“Slovenia’s is possibly the most unusual wine culture in the world,” Robinson, author of The Oxford Companion to Wine, wrote in this piece on her website, entitled “Slovenia – land of extreme winemaking“.
She also has 150 detailed reviews, but you have to pay for those.
goriska brda, originally uploaded by pirano.
Santomas, Slovenia’s priciest wines, in brief
A nice write-up late last month in the Financial Times about Santomas, one of Slovenia’s priciest wineries. I’ve tried several and don’t think that they’re unworthy of their €10-25/bottle price tags, but as UK wine writer and consultant Caroline Gilby points out, they, and others like them, are not at all an easy sell internationally:
Personally I like the Santomas label, but they are on the pricey side and need to be hand-sold by people who can explain they are wines unique to that corner of Slovenia. It’s the position for most Slovenian producers, as they are unlikely to be able to hit the volumes and pricing required for true mass market exposure, they need a niche.
The winery’s website is here, and some reviews here and here.
LJ Pic of the Day
From yesterday’s Cvičkarija festival in Ljubljana, a celebration for Dolenjska’s cviček wine, which was a key ingredient for Martin Strel’s successful swim down the Amazon two years ago. Wine and Earth Day should be synonymous, no?
(The guy wouldn’t get out of the way. My apologies.)
Still Life With Corks and Plastic Yellow Seahorses
If you’ve ever wanted to see a bathtub full of corks, you can now cross that off of your list of Things to See Before You Die.
I had two fairly large boxes full sitting on my balcony for the past seven months. An extended family of silverfish decided to move in, forcing a quick and unceremonial eviction. Despite the name, silverfish, or lepisma saccharina, don’t swim (and they’re easily subdued by lemon-scented Mr. Musculo kitchen cleaner, by the way) so the bath was in order.
All is well again.
(RIP. BTW, happy to note that the Ravenswood 1995 Zin cork is doing just fine.)
still life with corks and plastic yellow seahorses, originally uploaded by pirano.
Hungarian Baggage
A few bottles that jumped out at me at Budapest airport last week. Any thoughts, suggestions, notes, and/or observations would be most graciously appreciated.
- Bock Villanyi Royal Cuvee 2004
- Chateau Dereszla Tokaji Aszu Eszencia 2000
- Royal Tokaji 5 Puttonyos 2003
I’ve read lots of ‘wows’ about this bottle from Dereszla. According to Wine Spectator, only 415 cases were produced, and in their June 2004 review (94 pts) wrote that it’ll last nicely through 2025. (I’m extremely patient, but that’s really pushing it.)
The Bock is a cab sav, cab franc, merlot and pinot noir blend from the southern Villanyi region. The Royal I knew very little about.
Thanks!
hungarian_baggage, originally uploaded by pirano.
Obama Wines
Keeping with the St. Martin’s day theme and before I forget, notes on a few wines that were uncorked before the champagne during the election watching party the other night:
First was this 2006 Bonvin Humagne Rouge, made from a little known grape grown in Switzerland which I picked up a little over a year ago in Zurich. I’ve never tried or even heard of it before, but fell for a cute red-headed saleswoman’s pitch when I asked about local reds. I’m glad I did. It reminded me of a good zin, fruity with solid tannins. If anything it was opened at least two years too soon. Drink this with something Sarah Palin and Nicholas Sarkozy might shoot on their next helicopter-hunting trip.
I have no idea on its availability elsewhere, but my guess is that very little, if any, actually makes it out of Switzerland. Price tag was CHF 22.50 (today, EUR 15, USD 19). Nothing’s cheap in Switzerland, so this is definitely worth jumping on if you’re passing through.
Chateau Haut Padernac 2004. I picked this up in Paris on 07/07/07, and although my gut instinct was to wait, I yanked it out of the cellar simply because a Linz, Austria-based radio journalist from France, in town to cover the HAIP Festival, came by for the watching party. And I wanted him to feel at home. It rocks!
Produced by Pauillac’s Chateau Pedesclaux (sorry, don’t feel like googling the estate’s website right now), it’s a solid wine, with delightful layers of fruit and with just enough tannins to last until the next election when you can celebrate the Republicans losing even more seats in the House. By far, the best EUR 11.95 (USD 15.20 today, 16.20 on day of purchase) I spent that fabulous Saturday afternoon.
I’m heading to Greece today for a week, a little work in Athens, and a little play and time for reflection on Syros. I’ve never been. The weather forecast is warm and sunny.
Enjoy!
Obama wines, originally uploaded by pirano.
October pic(k)s
This shot, another of the front of Slovenia’s Parliament, is a fitting one for today, the kick-off of St. Martin’s Day festivities.
St. Martin? From one St. Martin’s Day fiesta a few years ago:
St. Martin –-specifically, St. Martin of Tours–- is the Catholic Church’s patron Saint of wine. Besides wine-growers, he is also said to look after beggars, soldiers and tailors. Quite a quartet to have under your wings. November 11 is an obligatory memorial in the Church, and, just a few months after the traditional grape harvest, a date that nicely corresponds with the year’s first wine releases. What is nouveau in Beaujolais, is simply mlado vino (young wine) here. And the day is set aside specifically with the Pope’s blessing. [More]
Or, if you prefer, a wine outing this weekend is another well-earned excuse to continue celebrating the end of the Bush Era, and the Dawning of the new.
The pic is also among a dozen or so of my personal faves shot in October; there are about a dozen more here, all, for a change, shot at home in Ljubljana.
Previous pic(k)s of the month: [Sep 08] [Aug 08] [July 08] [June 08] [May 08] [March 08] [February 08] [January 08]
Ljubljana 103, originally uploaded by pirano.
In the Raw: Nude Sushi Modeling
The first wave of anxiety hit me during the subway ride to Ambassador Wines and Spirits, at 54th Street and Second Avenue, in Manhattan. I wasn’t overcome by a fear of stripping, or the thought that the fish might leave some kind of smelly residue. What happened is that I glanced at my feet and saw that I needed a pedicure. Badly. People were about to be eating off me and I hadn’t done them the courtesy of getting my toes done.
More Confessions of a Naked Sushi Model from Vanity Fair.
via kottke.org
Jeune Fille a la Balle, originally uploaded by pirano.
Early Warning: 11th Slovenian Wine Festival set for November 19-21
I won’t be there (out of town) but that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t. No complete details available yet, but recent editions featured well over 300 wines for festival goers to sample, by any measure a good way to acquaint yourself to Slovenian wines. If you’re near Ljubljana that weekend, there’s no excuse not to attend.
Limited info on the festival website here.
Hotel Slon, Slovenska cesta 34, Ljubljana
Wednesday, 19 Nov (trade, media, invited guests only, tbc)
Thursday (20) and Friday (21), 1-9 pm.
Wine and Hard Times
Don’t dive out of the window into a shallow pool of cheap jug wine just yet.
From Robin Garr’s 30 Second Wine Advisor last Friday:
Your 401(k) is a mere shadow of its former self. Your house is now officially worth less than you still owe on it, and so is your car. And you’re not absolutely certain that when you go down to your bank in the morning, you won’t find that someone has put a padlock on the door.
When hard times come knocking on the door, what in the heck are we going to do about a necessary luxury like wine?
His bottom line: shop smart, stupid. My favorite from his shopping-during-a-recession list?
Revisit your subscription list – Pricey wine magazines like Wine Spectator focus on the winestyles of the rich and famous and the pricey wines they drink; Robert M. Parker Jr.’s Wine Advocate is more serious but still tends to specialize in higher-priced and hard-to-fine “cult” wines. If you find you aren’t buying many of the wines reviewed in these costly publications, consider whether the subscription price is returning its value.
If these hard times hit here in Slovenia, Slovenians will be well-prepared on the wine front. As in neighboring Italy, Croatia and Hungary, and nearby Germany and France, wine for daily drinking is odprto vino, or open wine, purchased from winemakers or market stalls, generally starting at about 2 euros per liter. More often not, perfectly fine for daily quaffing. And if that becomes too much, no worries. Many simply make their own. And of course, everyone knows someone who makes their own.
The Louisville, Kentucky-based Garr has been to Slovenia several times, and had plenty of good things to say about wine in these parts. Search his site here for plenty of tasting notes and trip diaries. His free daily email bulletin is a must for anyone with anything more than a simple passing interest in wine.
barrel, originally uploaded by pirano.
A Wine Writer’s Existential and Epistemological Challenges
“It’s like a puff of dust in the back of your throat.”
That’s how a salesman at a trade tasting once described a wine he was pitching. No, I didn’t buy it. Nor do I remember the wine. I only remember wondering why he would choose to elicit gagging when describing one of life’s greatest pleasures.
While his was a pathetic example, it does illustrate the sometimes maniacal metaphoric mangling that language is subjected to when wine writers tackle wine descriptions. There is a wide-ranging glossary of accepted terms used in the trade which winos eventually learn to use as their tasting experience expands. But in the end, do they really mean that much at all?
In this brief essay in The New English Review, Colin Brewer, armed with a Malbec 2004 from South Africa’s Paarl, examines what it all might mean:
Wine is always described as being like something else. This is appealingly post modern. If a chardonnay tastes a bit like a peach, what then does the peach taste like? A chardonnay? And if so, what does either taste like? If you must describe the Van Loveren 2001 limited edition Merlot as being “chocolately”, does it mean that chocolate tastes like the Van Loveren Merlot? And if we like the Merlot on account if its tasting like chocolate, why don’t we eat chocolate instead of drinking wine?
[Language, truth ... and wine]
chardonnay, originally uploaded by pirano.
‘I want to have this with ostrich!’
I’ve mentioned Wine Library TV before, an informative and entertaining wine tasting program hosted by New Jersey-based Gary Vaynerchuk. With more than 80,000 viewers a day, it’s a popular program, and he’s already been making the rounds and spreading the word through various (US) national TV appearances.
Last week he took on three Croatian wines: 2006 Vivoda Malvazija, 2006 Kutjevo Mihalj Gracevina, and the 2004 Zlatan Otok Plavac Mali. The latter varietal, from Croatia’s Dalmatian coast, is widely accepted as a close relative to zinfandel. And he was thoroughly impressed.
“I want to have this with ostrich!” he said. That’s a good thing, by the way. Check out the episode here.
One small glitch: he describes Croatia’s Istra as being near the Italian border. True, it’s not very far. But there is a tiny country, with lots of good wine of its own, squeezed in between the two.
60 Second Motovun Advisor
When you’re bopping through Croatia’s Istria peninsula, don’t forget to look inwards. Inland that is.
Smack dab in the center of Istra is the village of Motovun (population 400 and decreasing rapidly), a spectacular hilltop medieval settlement (elevation 270m /885 ft) affording sensational views of the Mirna river valley and mountains both near and far. The city walls date back to the 12th C., and the impressive city gate to the 15th when it was called Montona D’Istria. There’s simply no place like it in this area.
Istria figures prominently in the Croatian Tourism Board’s international PR campaign; part of that is for the region’s food and wine. The wine offerings are topped by Malvasia (Malvazija) and Teran (Carso Terrano) which both do quite well on both sides of the Slovenia-Croatia border. (In general terms, Malvasia is probably better on the Croatian side, Teran better on the Slovenian.) Local goat cheeses and olive oils are fabulous and bountiful, but perhaps the biggest culinary lure –certainly the most expensive– are the white and black truffles that are plentiful (if you know where to look) in the forests nearby.
The rapidly dwindling population is leading to serious problems for the hilltop community. Outside the main tourist season the village is virtually empty, with basic services beginning to disappear, and the infrastructure deteriorating. Current development plans, calling for the construction of polo grounds and a golf course and vacation villas for several hundred residents, are hotly debated. [More from the NGO Motovun Eco Town.]
An absolute must day trip if you’re in the area, and there’s plenty of interest to warrant spending a night or two in the area. The town also hosts a film festival each summer.
Wine: I bought one bottle, Kozlovic Othello 2003. Why? It’s a red blend (70% Teran, 15% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Merlot) and at 146 HRK (20 EUR/28 USD), it was the most expensive on the shelf of a delightful gift shop/local museum. That’ll tell me one of two things: it’s either a little-known bargain at that price, or, an overpriced offering targeted at day trippers and I was stupid enough to buy. I’ll let you know. Soon, I think.
A few more pics here.
Motovun 04, originally uploaded by pirano.
LA Times: ‘Wild wild wines’ from SLO
Nice feature article in yesterday’s LA Times, a generally positive overview of a handful of Slovenian wines that are making their way onto the menus of the trendiest of restaurants. (I won’t fault the writer too much for this wildly off the mark remark: “When the region emerged from Soviet control in 1991 …” )
Food and wine critics at the Times were impressed enough with a recent blind tasting to give nine Slovenian wines additional ink, also in the 30-Jan edition.
Three of the nine mentioned were from Movia, Slovenia’s most widely known producer in the rest of the world, but it was nice to see mention of some internationally lesser-known varietals, such as Pinela, Ribolla (rebula in SLO), and Refosco (refošk is SLO).
goriska brda, originally uploaded by pirano.
I’ve got hiccups after drinking vine…
… is the name of this 2001 abstract piece by Slovenian painter Janez Zalaznik. (My cure for hiccups, with 99.8% effectiveness, is a shot of lime juice, but no, not a good match with red wine).
I like it. Quite fitting after the last post. Currently on sale via Babele Arte for 2000 EUR. Details here.
