Black Sea Wines Brings You Items from the Web for 21 March 2011

Black Sea Wines brings you some of the latest news and opinions from the Web.

• Food & Wine magazine lists the best wines of 2010 from Eastern Europe according to a well-known Chicago sommelier.

• Frommer's, the travel site, lists the best local places for beer and wine in Eastern Europe.

• At a recent Moldovan Chamber of Commerce event, I was told of hopes to build an underground transport system to tour the wine cellars of Cricova.

• If you live in the New York City area, there is a class on the wines of Croatia and Hungary on March 26th.

• Austria's former commercial attache to Romania saw opportunity and launched the wine brand LacertA and is now opening a wine-tasting venue.

• Black Sea Wines recently reviewed the Avia Pinot Noir 2009. Why Wine Blog reviewed the 2008 edition.

• The 2011 Chardonnay du Monde competition for the world's best Chardonnay's was held in France last week. One of the top ten Gold Medal winners, Chardonnay Vyber z Hroznu 2006 by Vinarstvi Josef Valihrach, was from the Czech Republic. Bulgaria was cited as a Central European standout.

• Blogger Carolyn Snowabiad praises Turkish wine and provides a link to a CNN piece on the revival of Turkish wines.

Review: 2009 Avia Pinot Grigio from Slovenia

2009 Avia Pinot Grigio

Wine: From the Primorska region of Slovenia, we tasted the 2009 Avia Pinot Grigio. We purchased the Pinot Grigio at Bottle King, a large chain store featuring wine, beer and liquor, in the New York area of the United States. Avia sells low-priced everyday wines available around the world.

Tasting: We cracked the screw top bottle with dinner -- a bake of sausage, broccoli and sweet potato.

Results: Avia's Pinot Grigio was surprisingly flavorful. With 13% alcohol and good clarity, the wine was very young and fruity. It could have been a bit drier and had less sensation of carbonation. When I drank the wine, I tasted slightly less than ripe strawberries. Overall, the wine was not very complex but it was pleasant and it seemed that it could be a winner in the future.

Rating: Drinkable+

Price Value: Good for $4.99 a bottle; it was a decent glass of Pinot Grigio. Although for $10 a bottle, you can get a very good glass of Pinot Grigio.
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Black Sea Wines also reviewed Avia's 2009 Pinot Noir recently. See the review here.
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Read about how we review wines.

Review: 2009 Avia Pinot Noir from Slovenia ... No, Macedonia

2009 Avia Pinot Noir from Macedonia

Wine: With dinner this week, we drank a 2009 Pinot Noir by Avia of Slovenia. Black Sea Wines purchased the Avia for $4.99 at Bottle King, a regional chain of stores selling wine, beer and liquor in the New York area in the United States. Avia is a Slovenian wine company but purchases grapes from all over. Avia's Shiraz uses Chilean grapes. The Pinot Noir is listed as a product of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. The wine is produced in the Vardar Valley which is a Macedonian wine region near the Greek border.

Tasting Details: We opened the bottle, a screw top, immediately before dinner. Dinner was informal -- tuna sandwiches, rice cheese bake squares and salad. Debbie also tasted the wine.

Results: The wine was acceptable. It was dark for a Pinot Noir. I could barely see my finger through the wine even when holding the glass up to the light. Characteristics of this Pinot Noir were 12% alcohol content, a slightly acidic smell and the taste of yogurt. On the positive side, the Avia was dry, peppery, and had sufficient body. On the negative side, there was little balance. I detected minimal sweetness or fruit. To me, what makes Pinot Noir delightful is the ability to taste the sweetness and fruit yet still have a dry wine that works well with food. Debbie thought the wine was OK.

Overall rating: Drinkable

Price value: Decent price value. It was $4.99! What do you expect?

We will review Avia's 2009 Pinot Grigio next.
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Read about how we review wines.