NEW VITIS?

Is someone growing new grapevine? It must be Vitis ViniHedera. It doesn't need any treatment or pruning. I doubt the wine from it would be much appreciated though.

 

BORA AND VINE

 I doubt strong Bora and vine will ever be very good friends. Bora is one of nature features Vipava valley is known for. During winter on exposed areas it's gusts can reach about 200km/h, causing lots of damage. Unfortunately it can occur also during spring months. As it did at the beginning of May. Strongest Bora battered upper Vipava valley with gusts way over 100km/h, breaking branches and striping leaves from plants. On some exposed areas it looked quite terrifying after Bora ceased to blow. Vine is obviously quite hardy plant. After two weeks the situation in vineyards isn't as bad as it looked before. Fortunately new shoots were not too big, but alrerady strong enough they would suffer complete loss of their crop.

Viticulturists will have more work pruning excess shoots coming out of vine after their tops were broken off. 

The growing season just started, it's hard to say how this year's vintage is going to turn out.

bruised vine

CAN YOU SMELL IT? YES WE CAN!

The difference.

Suddenly a black wine glass came on the table. Let's try it, how does an excellent Valter Mlečnik's  Sauvignonasse (ex Tokaj, Tocai Friulano) vintage 2007 taste from a black glass? This black glass was standing in a cupboard for a while, so it had to be rinsed first. Accidentally some wine has already been poured into the glass. To check if a spider or some other bug is swimming in it, we re poured it to standard transparent wine glass. Why don't we try to find most appropriate glass for this wine? Soon we had a small collection of five different shaped wine glasses in front of us.

Mlečnik's Sauvignonasse 2007 is a full, complex wine with smell of tropical fruit and a hint of herb mixture, very balanced, smooth in mouth. Must, for those who like natural wine. I'm sure also many of those who aren't into natural wine would like it.

The first glass from left to right was OK, but some aromas didn't come completely developed to expression

The second glass was the best for this wine. Whole range of aromas came to nose, nicely balanced with the taste.

The third glass was also very good, maybe a bit less intensive aromas.

The fourth glass emphasized more high volatile aromas, it seemed to me also more alcohol.

The fifth glass from left to right was at least appropriate, aromas did not develop as in previous glasses.

If you happen to have Mlečnik's Sauvignonasse 2007, for complete satisfaction I recommend to drink it from glass shaped like second or third from left to right.

Na zdravje! (Cheers!) 

    

OIL, EXTRA-VIRGIN

Which is the best olive oil? Nobody can tell for sure. There are thousands olive cultivars. Thousands of areas where it is produced all around the world. And no two seasons are alike.

There were olive trees cultivated for quite some time in western Slovenia. In recent years it became again more popular. Compared to other traditional olive growing areas is the olive tree area in Slovenia very small. So is the quantity of oil. Olive trees are cultivated in Slovenian part of Istria, Brda and recently again some even in Vipava valley. Most planted cultivar is Belica, folowing by others like Leccino, Frantoio, Pendolino, Črnica, Maurino, Buga...Belica gives a very spicy, herbal oil, one has to get used to it. Other cultivars give less spicy oil, easier to combine with all kind of food. Therefore Belica is often blended with other oil like Leccino or even more other cultivars oil. 
 

If you consider olive oil tastings, some of best extra-virgin olive oils in the world come from Slovenia.There are olive oils from Slovenia which frequently get highest awards and recognitions. One of the most prestigious competitions Sol D'oro takes place each year in Verona, Italy. This years winner in the category of medium intensive oils is Boris Jenko with his extra-virgin olive oil, made of Frantoio cultivar. But there are others many times highly awarded producers like Dujc, Moljk, Jakomin, Morgan, Novak to name just some of them. Extraordinary for such small area. Past winter put a lot of stress on olive trees because of drought, low temperatures and persistent bora. Next years competitions will show the impact. 

Dried and roasted olives in olive oil

1st CHERRY

Some of first cherries in the season ripe in Vipava valley. They aren't very sweet, neither very big. Nevertheless, they have an advantage over later, tastier companions.

They aren't wormy!

If you compare cherries which are not sprayed.

PROMOTING INDIGENOUS

Choosing indigenous place to talk about indigenous wine promotion. Erzelj. We were talking about Zelen, Pinela, Rebula and Klarnica, from which truly indigenous wine in Vipava valley is Zelen. Others were brought centuries ago from Greece or Asia Minor and later Italy. Winemakers Andlovic (Avin), Krapež, Mesesnel, Mlečnik, Premrn (Pasji rep), Šušmelj (Miška), Vodopivec (Slavčeva kmetija), Turk (from Erzelj) and biggest wine cellar in the region Agroind Vipava brought their wines to taste. Different stiles of wines ranging from last years to 5 years old, from skin contact of couple of hours to three days and produced naturally or with oenological means. Nice wines.

Miro Kline one of Slovenia's leading experts on branding and consumer behaviour held a lecture which was leading to debate while tasting wine.

For this occasion I prepared green asparagus and cooked beef salad in small flan pastry bowl

Two of the wines left impression on me:

Zelen, vintage 2011, produced by Trošt Boštjan from Orehovica (who wasn't present) which is supposedly grown from original grapevine clone. The wine was left 3 days on skins, what is not usual for this wine. The wine is very rounded, fine structured, stronger as most of wine this kind, but not heavy.

The second wine was Pinela, vintage 2007, produced by Valter Mlečnik, who is known for his Sauvignonasse, Rebula, Chardonnay and Merlot. Also very different wine from what is considered as typical Pinela. 3-day skin contact, natural viticulture and wine making method makes it quite different from usual. This wine is also full in mouth, complex, but typical acidity for Pinela makes it young and lively. Unfortunately the quantity of this Pinela is so small he didn't even bother to label the bottles, it remains more as an experiment.

Different cork, different wine...

Wine samples