SOMETHING ORANGE IN THE AIR

Last April Friday in Izola. Encouraged with last year's positive responses the second Orange wine festival took place. http://www.zakladi-istre.si/images/stories/2013/OWF_mailing_A4_SLO.pdf 
Even bigger and better organized, better promoted. Even more (orange) wine lovers came. Beautiful Adriatic town Izola was over swelling with life. It was a chance to taste wines from 55 producers, all s.c. orange wines from 6 countries, even Georgia. There were also restaurants and other food producers offering their bits to taste. Not orange, none of them. 
People were in good mood tasting, asking about wines and talking to vignerons. Later on, questions became not so important, more some wine in glass. As it says in brochure issued for the occasion, "orange" wines are predominantly produced nature friendly, some even with bio dynamic method. Predominantly? What is than common criteria for "orange" wine? The color? Nobody was asking what hue of "orange" makes a wine "orange"? Is it important? Obviously not. 
There is one common point of this event; seems like everybody had fun and enjoyed it. 

note something orange in a bowl...

  
    

VRHPOLJE

 wine samples arriving

  Last Friday. It wasn't announced all over, more, it seems they wanted to keep it a small secret. Guided wine tasting took place prior to Wine shop opening in Vrhpolje, Vipava valley. Mr. Wondra insightful guided the tasting of 15 wine samples, all from Vrhpolje and Duplje villages, from whites to red wines. He emphasized the differences between wines in such small growing area. Vinification of presented wines was done professionally, no faults in wines. Samples ranged from Pergolin, Zelen, Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Muscat and couple blends on white side and mostly Merlot and Cabernet, their combination and one Syrah on red side. I preferred red wines from Martin Krapež, his Merlot 2009 and his red blend, Lapor rdeče 2009. 

I wish winemakers from Vrhpolje would make the choice which wine to buy  much harder for me. Hope it happens soon.

ham baked in bread crust

 

where to start?

 

WHAT VAT ?

Vats for maceration and primary fermentation. Not that long ago every vat used to be made of wood. Nowadays there are hardly any wooden vats left. In small wineries they are mostly made of plastic, sometimes concrete. In big wineries they are of stainless steel. 
No wonder there are less and less wooden vats around. They have to be scrubbed to keep them clean, soak them before usage and they have to be stored properly not to catch any mold or worms. Plastic vats are simply washed and put aside for next season. Seems like wooden vats will soon be only pieces for museum. Here they are.

  

WINE AND HORSE

Do horses drink wine? Probably yes, if one offers it to horse. It would be pity though to offer wine which this horse's owner makes. 
Painstaking and precise work in vineyards through the year, with low yield, long maturation process in clay vessels from Georgia and later wooden barrels tell different story of the wine.
In fact this makes Joško's wine unique. He is responsible for small wine making revolution in this part of Slovenia, Italy and beyond. Afterwards many winemakers couldn't resist the temptation of making wine in quevri, also called amphora... 
But it isn't just the process. It is his philosophy from pruning in winter and through the year to harvesting the grapes. Just to mention the work in vineyard. The wine Joško Gravner makes is very different from wine made in Georgia, at least as far what I tasted. Georgian ancient tradition of wine making inspired him to make his wines, not to copy them. The wines Joško makes definitely aren't something one would just make a sip and say: OK. 
His white wines are rich in taste, with herbal, also fruity note, fresh and clean in mouth.
http://www.wineanorak.com/italy/joskogravner.htm

When everybody complain about bad year for vine growing, he says: this is my best vintage so far.
I'm anxious to see what Joško makes out of this challenging year.

any wine left for me?

...just some goats inside...

...years ago they were "born" in amphora

      

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!) 

    

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

    

  

VIGNERON'S LIVER

Don't mean it literally. Vasja invited last evening for a bite of liver he prepared from Krškopolje pig. This is a Slovenian autochtonous pig species, gaining on popularity. It wasn't appreciated till recently because of it's higher fat tissue rate compared to other more common, mass bred pig. If animals are given more land to move around this rate improves quite a bit. It's meat is excellent base for high value products like salami or dried ham-Kraški pršut (prosciutto). Especially if it is bred and raised locally like Dejan does it.

liver finely sliced...

sauted with onion, garlic, salt and pepper, at the end some white wine in this case Malvasia was added...vigneron's liver

Dejan made three types of salami from Krškopolje pig

Vasja honored us with opening some older wine stock like this Chardonnay, which was surprisingly alive and of course salami shouldn't be missing

and this wine made of air dried grapes, it lost the sweetness a bit, but still nice on the nose, smooth in mouth

Krškopolje pig, with typical black and white pattern

       

IN THE LAND OF YOUNG AND FRESH

Just recently I visited a small annual wine presentation event in Planina, village on beautiful hills surrounding Vipava valley. Nicely organized and very well visited event. It is dedicated to local grape Pinela, which is in Slovenia cultivated only in Vipava valley. It is hardy plant, whose grape produce enough sugar and nice acidity. Pinela is pleasant and flowery on nose and has fruity flavor. Wine of the future as some like to emphasize.
What was a bit odd to me is that almost every winery present on this event offered only last year's wine. They don't age it. But it is not the case just here, this notion is widespread. It is not because Pinela and other wine wouldn't age well. No doubt, quality vary from year to year and weather conditions, not two vintages are the same. I tried some fantastic Pinela samples, vintage 2008 and 2009. In my opinion ways better, rounder, more balanced as those offered. 

Small wineries in Vipava valley started to bottle their wine in the 80's and 90's. Before, they simply sold wine from barrels. The whole wine making process took place in wooden vessels. They tried to sell wine prior to next harvest. Old wisdom says the young wine is ready to drink when grape vines begin to bloom.
Were they wrong? 
There is so much talk about identity, terroir, local tradition....

traditional waulted wine cellar with old wooden cascs and new stainless steel tanks

vigneron and winemaker in one person also used to make his own cascs

Now most of this "young and fresh" wine is produced in locally made stainless steel tanks, with enzymes and yeasts provided by global corporations. 
Local meets global.

Often heard argument is they have to sell fast to get the money needed for everyday living.
Is this the right way? Wouldn't be possible to make more of it by selling higher quality wine? It is not easy to get a piece of overcrowded wine market, but it is sure easier to be spotted if you have something unique than a uniform product.
A few good wineries-winemakers from Vipava valley and surrounding areas prove it.