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 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.

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.