Black Sea Wines Update - Moving to Greece - Sorry about the pause between posts

We have not posted for awhile because Barry is in the process of moving to Greece. The good news is that he will have even greater access to the wines of the region.

Other items about us:

• Black Sea Wines is listed on an excellent Eastern European food blog on About.com by Barbara Rolek. We are planning to do a joint post for an Easter meal pairing food and wine. Look for it.
• There's a short article about us in Romanian (which I wrote myself!) on the Bucharest restaurant blog called Restograf. If you are looking for a restaurant in Bucharest, this is the site. (The picture of me is not current nor flattering. I assure you that I have not walked into a shopping mall and opened fire.)
• We have updated our list of regional wine associations and organizations. Please send us links to your organization. We will update the calendar of events in coming weeks.
• New reviews are coming shortly.

Please sign up for an email subscription, leave comments and feel free to submit content. Noroc, na zdrave, cheers!

Black Sea Wines Brings You Items from the Web - 22 March 2011

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

• If you missed this January article from The Economist about wines making a comeback in the former Yugoslavia especially Croatia, Montenegro and Macedonia, it's a short and enjoyable read.

• Richard Jennings of RJonWine.com has a nice article on new releases from Eastern Europe and the Balkans.

• One of my favorite super cheap wines is the Bulgarian Gamza Suhindol. Gamza comes from the Veliko Tarnovo area and is a spicy medium-bodied red that sells for about $4 per bottle. Click here to find out about the wine and the Lovico winery. According to Lovico's website, their wine is available throughout the EU and in the US.

• IstanbulEats thinks that the 2007 Umurbey Sauvignon Blanc from Turkey is New Zealand quality.

• Cramele Recas, a Romanian winery, on its news page lists new places in the UK and US where you can buy their wine and recent awards. 

• If you can read Romanian, a nice wine blog is Cazan Cu Vin.

• Wine and cheese are always a nice pairing. If you are interested in cheese, check out the blog, Cheese Enthusiast.

Tell Us About Wine Stores with A Great Collection of Eastern European Wines - Anywhere

If you know of a wine store or merchant that features Eastern European, Black Sea or Central Asian wines, please let us know. Send us the name of the store, street address and website (if applicable). We would like to build a global database of where you can find the wines of the Black Sea. Thanks!

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.

Regional Wine Associations and Organizations

• All About Greek Wine
• Georgian Wine Association
• Greek Winemakers 
• Hungarian Wine Society
• Moldovan Small Wine Producers Association 
• Moldovan Wine Guild
• Romanian Winegrowers 
• Romanian Wine Exporters and Producers Association (Wine Romania) 
• Tokaj Wine and Women Association (Hungary) 
• Wines of Balkans
• Wines of Croatia
• Wines of Czech Republic 
• Wines of Serbia
• Wines of Turkey 

We will be adding to the list. Please send the name and URL of your wine association or organization!

2011 Wine Event Calendar

• February 23-26, Vinaria, Plovdiv, Bulgaria
• February 25-26, Zagreb Wine Gourmet Festival 2011, Zagreb Croatia
• March 2-4, Vinex, Brno, Czech Republic
• March 11-14, Oenos, Thessaloniki, Greece
• March 19-20, VinCE, Budapest, Hungary
• March 23-26, Vinovita, Zagreb, Croatia
• March 27-29, ProWein, Dusseldorf, Germany
• April 1-5, Intervitis Interfructa Russia, Krasnodar, Russia
• April 18-21, International Drink and Wine Expo, Bucharest, Romania
• April 25-29, Vino & Distilaty (Wine and Spirits), Prague, Czech Republic
• May 6-7, Valtice Wine Fair, Valtice, Czech Republic
• May 17-19, London International Wine Fair, London, UK
• June 2-4, Winexpo, Tbilisi, Georgia
• June 19-23, Vinexpo Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France
• September 9-11, Znojmo Wine Festival, Znojmo, Czech Republic
• September 7-11, Budapest Wine & Champagne Festival, Budapest, Hungary
• October 8-9, Moldova National Wine Festival, Chisinau, Moldova
• October 27-30, International Drink and Wine Expo, Bucharest, Romania
• November 9-12, Salon de Vin, Sofia, Bulgaria
• November 16-18, Enoexpo Krakow, Krakow, Poland

From the Web: Black Sea Wine Items for 15 February 2011

Recent items include:

• On Michael Green's blog, Tod Godbout extols the virtues of Kekfrankos or Blue Frankisch wines from Northwestern Hungary and who produces them in the US.
• Atlas Tours offers wine-themed cruises between Budapest and Prague.
• If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area and are interested in Eastern European wines, you must check out Blue Danube Wine Company. They even taught a classes on the wines of Eastern Europe last week.
• The US Ambassador to Bulgaria, owner of a 500 bottle wine cellar, praised the quality of Bulgarian wine.
• Red wine helps fight breast cancer? We knew resveratrol was good for the heart. Apparently, when it's combined with rapamycin, a breast cancer drug, there's an anti-tumor effect.

This is why our blog exists! The Telegraph: Are there any good wines from Eastern Europe?

The Telegraph in the UK answers the question, "Are there any good wines from Eastern Europe?" The answer is Yes with an endorsement of Frunza Pinot Grigio from Romania and Verus wines from Slovenia.

Wine Compass: Eastern European Wines Shine at the Washington D.C. International Wine & Food Festival

Our colleagues at Wine Compass thought wines from Hungary, Croatia and Slovenia were among the standouts at the recent Washington D.C. International Wine & Food Festival. Like me, they are fans of Plavac from Croatia.

The Mystery Red from Lion Gri

During my trip to Moldova, we met with the President and owner of Lion Gri winery. Lion Gri operates from a free trade zone at the edge of the city limits of Chisinau, the capital city. Lion Gri is impressively expanding into emerging markets like China and India. While we visited with the owner during our project evaluation, we were able to sample some wines. Upon leaving the production center, our generous host not only let us sample a number of wines but handed my colleagues and me a gift bag containing two bottles, one white and one red – both unlabeled. We had no idea what they were.

I brought the red home to the US. My father-in-law enjoys wine and a story. So, explained how I had received this wine from the production facility and had no idea what it was. What made the story more interesting was the recounting of meeting the winery president. She was an hour late and resplendent in high heels, a suit with shoulder pads and a ruffle collar shirt that would make Prince blush. It was a grand entrance.

We opened the wine sitting around the dinner table with my wife’s family. We ate pasta puttanesca with the mystery red along with salad and roasted vegetables as a side dish. By this time, Slava, my friend and colleague in Moldova informed me he thought the wine was a cabernet.

Anyway, we tasted it and we all enjoyed it. It went well with the puttanesca. I don’t think it was a straight Cabernet but a Cabernet/Merlot mix. The wine had a Cabernet taste but had low tannins, a soft aroma and seemed a bit too light in body to be a Cabernet. The wine was gentle but had enough taste to stand up to the capers. Everyone at the table seemed to enjoy the wine and the story. We managed to finish the bottle … the unlabeled bottle.

The moral of the story is if you receive an unlabeled bottle from Lion Gri, try it.

The Oldest Winery is in Central Asia ... Armenia!

Scientists found the world's oldest winery in a cave in Armenia. They believe the wine-press, grape seeds, urns and other artifacts they discovered date back more than 6000 years.

Our Wine Review Philosophy

Readers may submit wine reviews or tastings in any format or style they wish. Our style of review is as follows.

1. No quantitative ratings. I think saying one wine is a 98 and another wine is a 94 is silly. A comment by a friend from France has resonated with me over the years. He said the wine ratings have done wine drinkers a tremendous service by rooting out low quality wines but they also imply that there is one way that wine should taste. Not all wines are supposed to be bold, oaky and full of tannins. There is no scale that fits all wines.

2. Fine wines in their own right. If a Georgian or Croatian wine is rated as Outstanding, it does not necessarily mean that it is as good as a Domaine Romanee-Conti. We judge the wines within their own realm. The wines are not compared across all the wines of the world.

3. No fancy, abstract flavors. I don't pretend to have the most educated palate but I can honestly say that I have never tasted tobacco in wine. I have seen wine reviews describe wines tasting of "pear", "poached pear" and "pear tart." Hmm, pear ... OK, it's a fruit. But can you really discern the difference between poached pear and pear tart in a bottle of Pinot Noir? One wine expert told me a certain wine tasted of "smoked plums." I've never eaten a smoked plum! Have you? I use words like crisp, fruity, buttery, flowery, strong, peppery, woody, etc. However, I pledge that we will not write, "... the wine's flavor reminded me of the boldness of roasted almonds yet with a hint of insouciance from its butterscotch overtones."

4. What to expect.

* Information on the wine - name, type, vintner, year, etc.
* Where I purchased or drank the wine - wine store, vineyard, restaurant, festival, etc.
* What I ate while tasting the wine
* Color/appearance
* Aroma/bouquet
* Taste
* Overall rating - Outstanding, Excellent, Very Good, Good, Drinkable, Drinkable Minus and "May I have a beer, please?"
* Price value (if applicable)

To see all of Black Sea Wines' reviews and tastings, click here.