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 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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Interview with Nimrod Kovacs, Owner of Kovacs Nimrod Winery

Nimrod Kovacs

Kovacs Nimrod Winery, based in Eger, Hungary, offers wine drinkers whites and reds, varietals and blends made from well-known French and traditional Hungarian grapes. Black Sea Wines spoke with Mr. Nimrod Kovacs, the owner of the winery. Born in Hungary, Mr. Kovacs moved to the United States where he lived for over twenty years and became an advertising and telecommunications executive. During his international business travels, he developed a love for wine and a self-described ‘California taste.’ Kovacs decided to return to his native Hungary and invest in, among others, the Eger-based Monarchia winery. He retired from the telecommunications industry and became the proprietor of the winery which now bears his name.

BSW: We read your website. Can you elaborate on the story of how you became involved in winemaking?

NK: I was an investor in Hungarian wine, through the Monarchia merchant company for 10 years, which also oversaw the Monarchia winery in Eger. Two years ago, I left the corporate world and bought out the winery. It became my pet project.  Eger is similar to Burgundy and Northern Rhone. We have three tracts of land in the region where we grow grapes.

BSW: Tell us about your collection of wines.

NK: We are still refining our wines and moving to the next phase of quality. At the top of the pyramid, is the Nagy Eged hill with its Grand Cru characteristics where, we are trying to take lessons from designers like Armani and Versace by creating high quality, haute couture, unique, not mass market wines. Furmint and NJK are our two, top of the line, Grand Cru type wines so far. We are also working on some more reds from Nagy Eged, such as Pinot Noir, Kekfrankos, Syrah and Cab Franc, which will come out in a few years time.

In the middle of the pyramid are the Estate Selection wines including our 2007 Battonage Chardonnay, 2007 Pinot Noir and 2008 Syrah. The Pinot Noir is in made in an international style. It’s fruity, luscious and big with a nice body. Our Syrah is a fruity and peppery, Cote de Rotie style.

We are also developing everyday wines called EGRI for the bottom of the pyramid with purchased grapes that will sell at hypermarkets and large retail outlets for less than $10 a bottle.

BSW: We don’t grow Furmint in the States and it is not available in much of Western Europe. What is your Furmint like? Sweet? Dry?

NK: Our Furmint from Nagy Eged is a complex wine with aromas and flavors of pear and apricot with some flinty overtones and with a long finish. 2009 was our first year for the Furmint and we produced only 480 bottles. It’s a very nice wine and is more subdued and fruity than the Tokaj.

BSW: What should we look for in 2011 from Kovacs Nimrod winery?

NK: In March 2011, from our Estate selection, we introduced the 2008 Battonage Chardonnay which is more subtle and elegant than the 2007. Also, around September, we will bring out, our Estate Selection 2007 Kekfrankos. Finally, around Christmastime, we will offer two limited productions wines from Nagy Eged, the 2010 Furmint (1200 bottles) and the 2008 Kekfrankos (300 bottles). The Kekfrankos has been harvested from the very top of the Nagy Eged Hill (500 meters) which is the highest Kekfrankos terroir in Hungary.

BSW: Where can we buy your wines?

We sell in neighboring countries especially in Germany, Czech Republic and Poland, and of course, all over Hungary. We just shipped 5000 bottles to the US. I also am a 33% partner in Starry Night Winery, based in San Rafael, California who will help in the distribution of Kovacs Nimrod Wines in the USA.

BSW: Are there other wines in Central and Eastern Europe that you like or find interesting?

NK: There are many fine wineries in Hungary. From Eger, St. Andrea has great wines. Zoltan Demeter makes sophisticated wines in Tokaj. Istvan Szepsy is also a great winemaker in Tokaj. From Villany, Attila Gere and Sauska make nice wines. From the Szekszard region, Takler wines are big and luscious.

Black Sea Wines thanks Mr. Kovacs for his time and participation. You can find out more about Nimrod Kovacs Wines at www.kovacsnimrodwinery.com.

Review: Corten Pinot Noir 2007 from Moldova

2007 Corten Pinot Noir Ready for Tasting

Wine: The wine tasted was a Corten Pinot Noir 2007 from the Cahul region of Moldova. Corten is produced by Acorex, one of Moldova's largest wineries. Acorex sells internationally and offers a Chardonnay that is an excellent value.

Tasting: The wine was drunk from a paper cup at a Moldovan Chamber of Commerce event with the Moldovan Ambassador to the US. The Moldovan Embassy was kind enough to provide samples of the Corten at the conclusion of the event. No food was consumed with the wine, and the wine was opened immediately before drinking.

Results: Not bad but the wine should have been better. The wine tasted like it was starting to turn bad. This 2007 Pinot Noir is meant for drinking now. Perhaps improper storage at the Embassy and transportation to various social events damaged the taste of the wine. There was a slight 'skunkiness' to a wine which seemed to have potential. Beyond the skunkiness, the Corten had nice color (in the paper cup!), a decent bouquet and elements of citrus. The wine gave the impression that it would go nicely with soups, chicken and fish.

Overall Rating: Drinkable. Snooth rated the Corten 2007 Pinot Noir 3 1/2 out of 5 stars. If I had tasted a better bottle, perhaps I would have done the same.

Price Value: N/A
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A Wine Tasting at the Purcari Winery in Moldova

In December 2010, I was performing an evaluation of a USAID program to build competitiveness in the Moldovan wine, IT and apparel industries. One of the benefits of evaluating the wine industry is you do “field visits” to wineries which essentially means … wine tastings. With my colleagues, Colin and Veaceslav, we braved a horrendous ice storm and nearly skidded off the road while driving to the Purcari Winery in Moldova.

Purcari, one of the more successful Moldovan wineries, produces more than a million bottles per year and sells in 23 countries. The winery built a pleasant country inn near its vineyards with a nice dining room, billiards area, pond and wireless internet in a rustic valley. The fare offered in the dining room, a bit on the expensive side, was disappointingly bland and cold. The menu emphasized continental specialties rather than local.

Before dinner, we had a tour of the Purcari facilities. The facility was impressively clean and modern with imported processing equipment and French oak casks. We wound our way through the cellar and saw bottlings specifically for British royalty.

After the tour, we returned to the hotel for a wine tasting featuring Purcari’s eight principal wines. All of the wines we drank were produced by Purcari in 2007. The wine tasting was a bit academic. Because of the bad weather, the hotel guests all checked in late and the wine steward wanted to go home. The result was a lecture on the wines that seemed like a class in didactics rather than a fun wine tasting.

The first two wines were whites, a Chardonnay and a Sauvignon Blanc. The Chardonnay was acceptable; good for an Eastern European Chardonnay if you will. But the price difference with a good California Chardonnay is minimal, so there is not much reason to drink it unless you are unable to buy a California, French or other Chardonnay. The Purcari Chardonnay was flowery and more on the crisp side as opposed to being buttery. The Sauvignon Blanc was significantly better. Moldova and Romania are able to produce reasonable Sauvignon Blancs, dry with enough fruit, not as subtle or as smooth on the palate as a high-end Sauvignon Blanc but drinkable and tasty.

We then moved to the reds moving from the lightest wines to the heaviest. We started with a Pinot Noir which was solid. A friend who went to medical school said that when you received a “solid” in your student evaluation that it meant there was nothing wrong with you but you were not impressive. The Pinot Noir was solid. The Merlot was medium bodied and not quite as dry or robust as one would hope. It may have been one of the more disappointing wines because Moldova can produce some fine Merlot. The Cabernet was next. It was nice and had some fruit but it finished rather quickly. For the price, it’s definitely worth drinking if you’re not insistent on a “Big Red.” The varietals we tasted ranged from $8-12 per bottle.

The next two wines were the two premium blends made by Purcari, Rosu de Purcari (Red by Purcari) and Negru de Purcaru (Black by Purcari). The wines blend Cabernet, Merlot and Saperavi, a Georgian grape. Negru is the super premium wine and sells for $20 per bottle or more which is quite high by Moldovan standards.

The Rosu had nice color, balance and fruit. It was a little timid. I had a difficult time smelling the bouquet. The Negru was the event’s best wine. (Colin thought the Rosu was the best wine. Slava thought the Sauvignon Blanc was.) With a dark color and the strongest scent, Negru de Purcari had the most complexity and flavor of the group. Despite its relatively young age, the Negru clung to the glass and gave us some ‘legs.’ We finished by tasting the Cahor dessert wine. I must admit I am not much of a dessert wine drinker and really am unable to properly judge the Cahor. Nonetheless, my opinion is the Cahor is pleasant, not too cloying and would accompany many desserts well.

I should note that I may be a bit overcritical of the wines because I drank a number of Purcari wines from 2003 and they were a superb value. The 2003 Pinot Noir was outstanding. Lush and velvety on the palate, the Pinot was great with food or solo. I gave a consulting client a bottle of Rosu de Purcari 2003 as a Christmas gift and had a new project two months later! Thus, 2007 may not have been a great year. The winery staff told me that 2010 was not a great year for grapes because the weather was too wet. I would summarize by saying that the Purcari wines are eminently drinkable and enjoyable wines, particularly at their price point, but not superlative, and look out for Purcari wines from 2008 and 2009.

What made the wine tasting particularly nice was that they left the opened for the three of us to finish. So, we managed to polish off nearly all of the seven drinking wines and stumbled upstairs to the winery’s nicely appointed hotel rooms to sleep off the wine tasting and begin the difficult work of evaluating another wine producer.