American Wine Society National Tasting Project
Alice and I hosted the Ann Arbor chapter of the American Wine Society (AWS) for the National Tasting Project focusing on wines of the Balkans. National Tasting Project or NTP is a tasting of wines chosen by the national chair available to every chapter in every state. So, last month all of the chapters from all over the country tasted the same twelve wines. We started our tasting with a handful of wines from Slovenia that Alice and I had purchased a long time ago (pre-COVID) for a Balkan wine tasting and dinner that we never got to put on when we lived in Holland. We used those for the warm up wines while we all enjoyed a few appetizers and had a chance to get settled in for the formal tasting.
All of the wines from Croatia and Bosnia that we tasted are from a tiny sliver of a region along the Adriatic Sea between Mostar and Dubrovnik. The Slovenian warm up wines were scattered among the three corners of Slovenia. This area (Illyria) has an ancient wine history but the wine economy here was destroyed during the Soviet years and all of the wineries represented here are fairly new. All of the wines from Croatia and Bosnia were made predominantly from grapes native to the region although these grapes are all related to more familiar European Vinifera varieties and often the predecessors to the grapes we enjoy every day. For example, Plavac Mali is an ancient predecessor of Zinfandel and Tribidrag is in fact the very clone from which the famous Count Agoston Haraszthy brought to California now known as Zinfandel and identified much later in Italy as Primitivo. Several years ago, we enjoyed a Croatian wine made as a joint effort between Mike Grgich and a Croatian winery that we shared with a Bosnian friend in Grand Rapids. When we tasted the wine, I was so impressed that I suggested to him that it was as good as any French Grand Cru. He looked at me with a rather puzzled look and stated in a very measured way “French Grand Cru? We were making wines such as this when the French still lived in caves”. Yes, westerners tend to forget that the civilization of the Balkans predates that of Western Europe by more than a thousand years.
Among the Slovenian wines we offered 2018 GONC Pavel / Kerner Dry White SLOVENIA $19 which was pleasantly fresh and aromatic. Not quite as brisk as Riesling nor with the emphatic bouquet of Gewurz, yet very enjoyable for its pleasantly soft easy balance. Next was 2017 EDI SIMCIC GIOCATO Pinot Grigio Dry White SLOVENIA $14 which is much richer fuller bodied and more mature than the Pinot Grigios we typically see from just on the other side of the border in Italy. It was certainly big enough to accompany rich foods like poultry and well sauced seafood. 2015 ROJAC ISTRA Refosk (Refosco) Dry Red Wine SLOVENIA $19 also has relatives in Italy. Refosk is related to Corvina of Valpolicella fame. To my taste, it was a bit oxidized but that may just be my winemaking prejudice showing. Most of the tasters thought it was nicely maturing and accurate for the variety.
Below we have the lineup for the 2021 NTP with my notes and score as well as our group score and in parentheses, the national score of the non certified AWS members - the score of just certified AWS wine judges and the overall ranking of all participants. Also, I have stated a percentage of chapters who scored that wine in the top three wines that they tasted. Not all chapters tasted all wines because of price. Because of that, the top wines which were also the most expensive probably would have had an even higher score. Those marked with an * are the wines with the highest number of top three finishes. Statistically, these are the three best liked wines regardless of average scores. These wines were not average! It would appear that most of the tasters (not our chapter, however) preferred the last wine which had a good slug of Cabernet and other French grapes in it over the indigenous Balkan varietals.
CROATIAN FLIGHT
2018 TERRA MADRE Posip / Chardonnay Komarna-Dalmatia $15 is a simple, clean light white. Very fresh yet with a nice little crisp finish. My score 16/20 SILVER / group score 14.3/20 BRONZE eighth place tie (AWS 14.1-15.2 tenth place BRONZE) 7% top three
2019 VOLAREVIC LA CHIC Paval Mali Ros Komarna-Dalmatia $15 is a fairly full flavored rose. I liked it and felt the richness would make it a good companion with cold meat, lox, or heavy hors d’oeuvres. My score 17/20 SILVER / group score 13.6/20 NO MEDAL tenth place (AWS 14.3-14.9 eleventh place BRONZE) 11% top three
2016 RIZMAN Tribidrag / Tempranillo Komarna-Dalmatia $45 is ablolutely huge. Dick Scheer said he could have easily mistaken it for Rioja but to me, the Tempranillo was completely overshadowed by the Tribidrag (Zinfandel). This is a big, fat, ripe, juicy, rustic fruit bomb. The finish stayed the course too. Though I can’t say I didn’t like it, to me it was just too one dimensional to enjoy more than a little. Maybe time will do it some good. My score 16/20 SILVER / group score 15.6/20 SILVER second place (AWS 15.7-16.2 thid place SILVER) 63% top three*
2016 KOMARNA 7 (K 7) Plavac Mali Komarna-Dalmatia $19 was a joint effort of all seven wineries in the Komarna-Dalmatia region. It is lean (not big and fat) but still mouth-filling and elegant with long fine tannin in the finish. I also detected a slight iodine character on the palate though I was clearly in the minority on this My score 16/20 SILVER / group score 14.7 BRONZE sixth place (AWS 15.4-15.3 eighth place SILVER) 50% top three
2015 VOLAREVIC SYRTIS Plavac Mali Komarna-Dalmatia $35 was my favorite hands down! This is a WOW! It reminds me of the old Rosenblum Sauret Vineyard Zins. It sneaks up quickly with MONSTER fruit! Not just any fruit but finely honed, edgy red fruit of the classiest sort. The finish is more of the same with very finely tuned tannin. Great wine! My score 20/20 GOLD / group score 15.2 BRONZE third place (AWS 15.8-15.8 fourth place SILVER) 63% top three*
2016 TERRA MADRE Plavac Mali Komarna-Dalmatia $39 is rich with good typical Zin character in the nose and leans toward spice evolving to aromatic incense-like wood nuances. The finish is long and penetrating with a classy up tick at the end. My score 18/20 GOLD / group score 16.1 SILVER first place (AWS 15.3-15,7 seventh place SILVER) 57% top three
BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA FLIGHT
2019 CITLUK STONE CUVEE Zilavka / Bena $19 is very Vignoles-like with fresh clean solidly aromatic fruit with hints of herb. Dick also felt it reminded him of Michigan white wine. At least one of the tasters felt it was too sweet, but, with a nice fresh acidity, I didn’t notice any residual sugar at all. My score 16/20 SILVER / group score 14.8 BRONZE fifth place (AWS 15.2-15.9 fifth place tie SILVER) 22% top three
2019 PODRUMI VUKOJE Tamjanika $22 has a big Muscat-like nose. It also reminds me of Michigan wine maybe a Vidal Demi Sec with a nice little touch of sugar in the finish. My score 15/20 BRONZE / group score 15/20 BRONZE fourth place (AWS 14.5-15.5 ninth place BRONZE) 13% top three
2019 CARSKI VINOGRADI Blatina Rosé $19 has a rich cooked plum jam-like smell that reminds me of my mother’s Italian red plum preserves. Yum yum. My score 18.5/20 GOLD / group score 12.9 NO MEDAL eleventh place (AWS 13.8-14.4 thwelfth (last) place BRONZE) NO top threes
2015 CITLUK Tmjak (Vegan) $30 is a very typical Mediterranean wine; good and solid not bright or zesty but rather more muscular and substantial. My score 15/20 BRONZE / group score 14.6 BRONZE seventh place (AWS 16.0-16.4 second place SILVER) 54% to three
2016 CITLUK TEUTA Blatina Reserva $40 is a big earthy devil which came across as corked to several of the tasters though Alice (Miss Queen of Cork) did not detect TCA. To me, the rustic chocolate cocoa and wood spice was enjoyable but I would not begin to put it in the fine wine category. My score 15/20 BRONZE / group score 11.3 NO MEDAL twelfth (last) place (AWS 15.4-15.7 fifth place tie SILVER) 36% top three
2016 CARSKI VINOGRADI EMPORIA Deep Red Cuvee (Cab Sauv, Merlot, Syrah, Tmjak, Vranac) Mostar $45 lives up to its name with very rich long solid mature fruit in a typical Mediterranean style though not a particularly fine or classy wine. My score 15.5 BRONZE / group score 14.3 BRONZE eight place tie (AWS 16.2-17.2 first place SILVER) 88% top three*
In general, I did like the wines. 15-17 is not a bad score. But, only a couple of these really made me want more and really none of them offered any kind of value. Maybe the VOLAREVIC SYRTIS Plavac Mali might be considered a value because it is about the same price as a comparable California wine, but, for the most part, the wines are not nearly as price worthy as wines from elsewhere in the world. I suspect that at this time, the shipping mechanisms are not nearly as mature as those in other parts of the world and maybe in the next decade we’ll see better prices as more and more of these wines are shipped out.
Enjoy in Good Health!
Brian Cain, the Michigan Vintner
