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European Wines

HomeEuropean Wines (Page 20)

By 0European Wines, Red Wine, Rest of the World, Wine Reviews

  It’s been years and years since I’ve been to the Balkans but in that time the quality of the wine there has improved by leaps and bounds. E&M were in Montenegro this summer and brought back several bottles including this 2012 Plantaže Vranac which was a lot nicer than I remember Montenegrin wine being. Vranac is the red wine grape in Montenegro and the Plantaže Vranac is a lovely example of it. It is medium bodied with a bright garnet color and a strong backbone of 14% abv. The acid was quite high though and I think this 2012 would be better in a few more years after it has had a chance

By 0Amphora, European Wines, Red Wine, Rest of the World, Wine Reviews

  Last September I returned to Georgia for a trip full of wine and adventure. While I was in Tbilisi I got the chance to meet the founders and writers of Exotic Wine Travel, one of my favorite wine blogs. I met Dr. Matthew Horkey and Charine Tan at Vino Underground, a great wine bar in the heart of Tbilisi that is owned by several of Georgia’s premier wine makers. It was there they introduced me to the Jakeli Saperavi. Slowly coming 'round Saperavi is a native Georgian grape that has been cultivated in the Kakheti region since 6000-5000 B.C. Over 7,000 years this grape has been grown and used to make wine-Georgia’s claim to

By 0European Wines, Red Wine, Rest of the World, Wine Reviews

  I almost don’t even know where to begin with this. E and I set off on what was to be a relaxing weekend break at a winery spa in Bulgaria-it turned out to be something rather different. We left early so we could pick up our rental car at the airport and get the four-hour drive out of the way; unfortunately the travel troubles began right away. Enterprise’s system was down (“system problem” are words we often hear in Turkey) so despite arriving at their service counter before 9AM it wasn’t until 11 that we were finally on the road. With no traffic barring our way the drive through

By 0European Wines, Red Wine, Rest of the World, Wine Reviews

  I’ve been terribly neglectful about both having and writing about the Hauteville Grand Vinde. This was a gift from a colleague last summer and we just opened it a few weeks ago. Gozo is one of the islands that make up Malta and is apparently known for being the most fertile climate in Malta and some of the best Maltese vineyards are located on this island. My colleagues lived in Malta for a while and told me that what she learned there is that, when speaking about wine, that you can’t just say ‘Maltese’ wine, you have to identify with the specific island. So this Hauteville Grande Vinde

By 0European Wines, Red Wine, Rest of the World, Wine Reviews

  Aside from the Georgian restaurant a colleague and I found in Budapest on our free day, the only highlight, indeed the only thing that made the eight days I was stuck in Lake Balaton, Hungary bearable was the Hungarian Festival with its myriad of food, wine, and craft stalls. Especially the wine stalls like Tihanyi. Set in the middle of a park (which we don’t see too much of in Istanbul to begin with!) the festival was very atmospheric with lights strung up in the trees and communal tables for eating and drinking the many offerings. Many of those many offerings were pork-based foods and you can bet I

By 0European Wines, Red Wine, Rest of the World, Wine Reviews

  I’ve been really lax about posting the Hungarian guest wines! I still have something like four to go! So on that note, next up is the 2012 Gelleri Cabernet Sauvignon. I quite liked this one. If I recall correctly we may have gone through the Gelleri stall’s stock of this one evening. We started out as four people and by the fourth or fifth bottle we’d collected a few more disgruntled colleagues. Each new person joining us went to get another bottle. The drinks stalls had a 500 Fiorent deposit on glasses and you could return them to any of the wine vendors to get back the deposit. Or

By 0European Wines, Rest of the World, White Wine, Wine Reviews

  Aside form a late harvest white I have yet to open, the vast majority of wines I brought home from Hungary were reds. However a talkative young man at the Dorgicesi hut convinced me that I should try a wine made from a traditional Hungarian grape and got me to give their Juhfark a try.  For 1200 HUF (just over $4) what could it hurt? Absolutely nothing, that’s what it could hurt. Or couldn’t hurt more accurately. If scents are colors then the color of the Juhfark and the nose match perfectly. The wine is a beautiful golden color that seemed almost reflected in the hints of honey in the

By 0European Wines, Red Wine, Rest of the World, Wine Reviews

  The Vylyan Ordog 2012 we found at a restaurant one evening. Our choices were limited to only three reds (one of which was immediately eliminated for the sin of being a Merlot) and of the two remaining options, the Vylyan won because of the fantastic description: Because this is Hungary, the description in the menu was in Hungarian, English, and German. I have no idea what the Hungarian says but the English translation was pretty boring telling is only that “barrel aging makes this wine really demonic”. It’s in the German though that we found the best description: “Der Teufel der alten Legende ist liebevoll!” Or: The Devil of

By 0European Wines, Red Wine, Rest of the World, Wine Reviews

  I brought home a number of bottles from my miserable week in Hungary. Which, to clarify, was miserable not because I was in Hungary but because of why I was there. What’s not entirely miserable is this 2012 Chateau Vazsonyi Zweigelt I picked up while there. I’m not sure I’ve ever had a Zweigelt wine before. Typically an Austrian grape (although apparently also cultivated in Hungary) the blue-black Zweigelt grape is used for both red and rose wines. A dark, opaque red, the Chateau Vazsonyi is very hot in the nose with cassis and maybe blueberry. It’s definitely a little hot. Not much for the tannins, nor is there a great

By 0European Wines, Red Wine, Rest of the World, Wine Reviews

  We’re trying something a little different today! I was stuck in the middle of nowhere Hungary for work for a 10-day staff retreat…so naturally I was drinking. I was drinking a lot. It’s been 12-ish years since I was in Hungary and I knew zero about wine then which means that Hungarian wine made no impression on me (sorry, dudes). However I was happy to learn on this trip! That was about the only ting I was happy to do on that trip… The village where we were sequestered had a festival of Hungarianness. Although (as one vendor explained to me) it was not Hungarianness that has always been