Wine on the Run: Poze Rose Wine of Greece

Poze Rose from Greece

Poze Dry Rose Wine is OK. Nothing to run for or to run from. It's dark and a little more red than many Roses but does not have that super Rose freshness and fun feeling. At 4.50 Euro per bottle, it's fine served chilled at a barbecue on a hot day.

Review: Kourtaki Vin de Crete (White) 2008 from Greece

Vin de Crete 2008 by Kourkaki

Wine: Since I moved to Greece, I have been mainly drinking the house wine at restaurants that comes in 1/4-1/2 liter pitchers that has varied in taste from rotgut to somewhat better than rotgut. If you have not figured it out by now, I am cheap. Last weekend, I went out looking for a place to exchange dollars to Euros. It was Sunday night and rainy. After walking endlessly, I stumbled upon a tourist restaurant. I was wet and tired and did not care. There was no house wine so the waiter suggested a 1/2 bottle of Vin de Crete by Kourtaki. I knew nothing about the wine but thought Crete's hot and dry climate should be ideal for white wine so I readily agreed. Vin de Crete is said to be a "country wine" from the hills of Central Crete using a native grape called the Vilana.

Tasting: The wine was a half bottle served chilled and eaten with fried calamari (really good) and lamb chops (pedestrian). Kourtaki's Vin de Crete 2008 has 12% alcohol.

Result: The Vin de Crete had a dry and fresh taste. It tasted out of the barrel in a good way. The Vilana had a slightly wetter taste than a crisp Sauvignon Blanc. The wine was golden in color, clear, and medium-bodied. There was a taste of sour apple, like a Granny Smith. The wine was delightful with the calamari. Grilled sea bass is popular here. The Vin de Crete would go perfectly with the sea bass.

Rating: Good.

Price value: 8.50 Euros for a half bottle in the tourist restaurant was probably two to three times the street price. My guess is that it is a very good buy.

Review: 2005 Negru de Purcari of Moldova

Wine: My friend Rob said, "I read your blog and now I know what not to drink." We have not reviewed too many stunners yet. We want Black Sea Wines to guide you to the terrific wines of Eastern Europe and Central Asia. So, after Rob's comment, we were headed to the home of friends and I pulled out a bottle of 2005 Negru de Purcari from Moldova which I carried back in my suitcase from a trip to Chisinau in the hopes of drinking a winner. In an earlier post, I mentioned how I loved the 2003 Negru de Purcari but was disappointed in the 2007. Purcari is one of Moldova's leading wineries, and Negru de Purcari is their Cadillac or Mercedes brand. Negru de Purcari is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Saperavi.

Tasting: We tasted the wine with our friends, Martha and Tom. Both are great cooks. Tom made pizza from scratch with basil and fresh mozzarella. It was amazing. We opened the bottle with the pizza. We drank the wine immediately after opening without decanting.

Result: The Negru de Purcari lived up to its reputation. Debbie liked the wine. I asked Tom what he thought of the wine and he said that it was subtle. The wine did not try to overpower you but had lots of taste. I agree. The Negru de Purcari was wonderfully smooth with lots of fruit. It was dry with just a little bit of sweetness and left a pleasant sensation on the tongue. The wine had good clarity and was delightful a bit colder than room temperature.

Rating: Very Good. I cannot give the wine an "Excellent" because it would have needed to be a "little bigger."

Price Value: $20-25 USD per bottle. Average. The price for the wine is perfectly acceptable but at $20, there are many wines from California, South Africa and Australia just as good.

Review: Egervin Bulls Blood 2007 from Hungary

Wine: One of the most famous wines from Hungary is Bulls Blood by Egervin. Egri Bikaver, translated as Bulls Blood, comes from the town of Eger, Hungary and dates back to the 1850s. Although the legend of the phrase Bulls Blood is derived from much earlier times when the citizens of Eger fought the Ottoman Empire and drank red wine for strength. Bulls Blood is available throughout the world and is self-classified as a dry red table wine. Along with the Tokaji dessert wines, Bulls Blood is among the most well known Hungarian wines in the United States. What makes Bulls Blood particularly interesting is that it can have any three of ten grapes: Kadarka, Kékfrankos (or Blaufränkisch, Blauer Portugieser, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Menoire, Pinot Noir, Blauburger and Zweigelt. Kadarka, a native Hungarian grape is traditional, but other grapes are substituted when supplies are insufficient. The wine was purchased at Liquor Outlet and Wine Cellars in Boonton, NJ. (A terrific wine store.)

Tasting: We tasted the wine at home with dinner. (Sorry I forgot to take notes on dinner.)

Results: The wine's label suggests opening Bulls Blood one hour before drinking. We opened the bottle two hours before drinking. When we tasted the wine, we were disappointed. It was harsh and clearly not yet ready to drink. We vacuum sealed the bottle and tried it again three days later. All the harshness had disappeared. The wine was dark, rich and warm with great legs on the glass. There was a taste of cherries and currants with some tannins. It had a medium to heavy body with a strong aroma.

Rating: Good

Price Value: At $8-10 USD per bottle, it's a good price value; not tremendous but good. I found a 2004 bottle in the store and will review that one next month. I can't wait!

Review: Chateau Topolcianky Tramin Cerveny 2006 from Slovakia

Chateau Topolcianky Tramin  2006

Wine: I am in the process of moving to Athens and stopped off for two days of business in Bratislava. I decided to try some Slovak wine. I went to the Tesco at the My Bratislava shopping center and found an excellent selection of Slovak and Czech wines at varying price points. Since I am predisposed to drink red wine, I decided to try a white, a Tramin Cerveny 2006 by Chateau Topolciansky of Slovakia. Tramin, also known as Traminer or Gewurztraminer, is one of my favorite Eastern European whites.

Tasting: It was a wine tasting for this review. My second tasting was with pizza.

Results: The Tramin Cerveny is nice. I would describe it as fruity and spicy. There were tastes of grapefruit and banana. I would have preferred the wine to be a bit drier and more flowery but it is enjoyable. (The Tramin is not as crisp or complex as the Traminer Rezerva by Chateau Vartely of Moldova.) Chateau Topolcianky's Tramin has a pleasantly acidic aftertaste that lingers specifically on the tongue yet is a gentle wine. The wine's color is a deeper yellow than I expected but has good clarity and a stronger than expected aroma.

Rating: Drinkable+ to Good. When I went to the hotel bar to ask for a corkscrew, the waiter looked at the wine's label and smiled assuredly at me.

Price Value: For 5 Euros a bottle, it's a good value.

Review of Terra Romana Wines from Romania by Nicusor Cazan

We are fortunate to have a blog post from Nicusor Cazan who has his own terrific blog in Romanian called Cazan Cu Vin (literally "Cazan With Wine"; more akin to "Cazan On Wine"). We are delighted to have his first English language post at Black Sea Wines. Here's Nicusor's post:

---------

A couple of days ago I was introduced by one of my good friends, to a wine enthusiast overseas. His name is Barry and he is the creator and the contributor of a wine blog named "Black Sea Wines". I found this initiative more than welcome and, because Barry invited me to write a review of a Romanian wine for his blog, here is my very first post in English.

And what other better opportunity to share than the two latest creations of one of the best Romanian wine producers. Its name, SERVE, is an acronym for "Societatea Euro-Romana de Vinuri de Exceptie", one of the first initiatives in Romania, after the fall of communism, to produce premium wines. It was founded in 1994 by Guy Tyrel de Poix, a highly valued Frenchman by the Romanian wine industry, who unfortunately this year left us too soon. RIP.

He put back on track an area of approximately 100ha divided in two vineyards. One on the hills between Ploiesti and Buzau, near a village called Ceptura, an area with a climate similar to Burgundy, called Dealu Mare, very famous in Romania for its very good wine, especially reds. The second one, located somewhere in Dobrogea, a very sunny place, is part of the Babadag vineyard.

Coming closer to the wines they are producing, I should mention their two labels: Vinul Cavalerului and Terra Romana. And today I will focus more on the second one, having the pleasure to receive two samples directly from the producer, to whom I kindly thank.

I tasted two very young wines from this vintner, 2010, which were launched only a couple of weeks ago together with a Rose, a Feteasca Alba and a Chardonnay, also from 2010.

The first one tasted by me was Terra Romana Sauvignon Blanc 2010, with a moderate 13% alcohol very well integrated by a fresh and crispy feeling thanks to a high acidity. According with the “technical” specification, I received in a letter together with the bottles, this wine was never in touch with any wood, which give you the opportunity to feel on your lips all the citrus a young and typical Sauvignon Blanc can offer. The very pale yellow of its color with some greenish hue together with the typical smell of vine tendril makes it an excellent and easy to drink everyday wine.  The aftertaste is very long and bitter. A good pairing for some sushi I tried on Sunday.

The second one was a more complex wine, called Terra Romana Milenium (white). It’s a blend of Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling and a drop of Chardonnay. It is produced from a new plantation in Dealu Mare region and part of the wine was matured in new barrels. Because of this and more residual sugar, it’s totally different than the first one.

A more intense yellow color, with some green glows because of the age, leaves some very nice traces on the glass after whirling. The nose is a little bit pungent with floral aromas and the tendrils, thanks to the Sauvignon Blanc. In the mouth is more round and soften than the previous one with a similar long and bitter after taste. What I felt in addition, was some milky sensation on the tongue following the swallow.

As a conclusion and a personal recommendation I will go with the Sauvignon Blanc, because of its higher freshness and acidity which I prefer to a very young white wine.

Santé."

---------
Our thanks to Nicusor. Please see his blog. And by the way, I agree that some of the Terra Romana wines are very nice. Romania makes some lovely Sauvignon Blancs.

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.
--
Black Sea Wines also reviewed Avia's 2009 Pinot Noir recently. See the review here.
--
Read about how we review wines.

Revisited Review of Matrasa from Azerbaijan

The original Black Sea Wines review of the Matrasa by Ganja Sharab of Azerbaijan was a Drinkable-. We found it a bit harsh with an antiseptic taste. After the initial tasting, I sealed the bottle with a vacuum stopper. Three days later, I wanted one glass of wine with dinner. Debbie was not joining me. I did not want to open a new bottle. Reticently, I poured a glass of the three-day old Matrasa.

All the harshness from the initial tasting was gone. The wine was smooth and rich; leaving a warm aftertaste on my tongue. It was a Drinkable+ on the second go-round.

I tried the wine a third time four days later but by then it was nasty. So, my advice for a recent vintage Matrasa. 1.) Store it for a year. 2.) Decant well in advance of drinking.
--
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.
--
Read about how we review wines.

Review: Matrasa by Ganja Sharab from Azerbaijan

Matrasa by Ganja Sharab of Azerbaijan

Wine: I sampled a Matrasa, a red wine from Azerbaijan, from Ganja Sharab, a well known Azeri vineyard. There was no vintage on the bottle but a date stamp of May 2010. I purchased the wine in a market in the downtown section of Baku, Azerbaijan's capital. Baku is a beautiful city and the downtown area is modern yet retains an oriental feel. I carried the wine back to the US in my luggage. I really wanted to like this wine because Azeri wines are not common in the West and it comes in a really cool looking ceramic bottle. Besides, I schlepped it 5000 miles. Unfortunately, I did not find the wine appealing.

Tasting Details: We drank the Matrasa with dinner at home-- pasta with marinara sauce, roasted brussel sprouts, feta cheese and salad. My wife also tasted the wine.

Results: Neither Debbie nor I enjoyed the Matrasa. The aroma had a faint rubbing alcohol smell. The wine had little fruit and no complexity. It had an alkaline taste with a strong aftertaste. In short, a basic red wine that seemed antiseptic. The color was a dark red but seemed a little light. We did not finish the bottle and used a vacuum stopper to store the wine for future drinking. On the third day, the wine actually tasted significantly better. So, if you have a bottle of Matrasa by Ganja Sharab, make sure to decant or open the bottle well in advance of drinking the wine.

Overall rating: Drinkable- (minus)

Price value: You can have better Azeri wines at the same price - around $8 per bottle.
--
Read about how we review wines.

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
--
Read about how we review wines.

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.

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.