Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Bulgaria can all offer unexpected delights for wine-lovers, while Moldova has a rich viniculture tradition dating back thousands of years.
From soft and fresh to rich and strong, Balkan wines can offer a diversity of flavours as well as some indigenous varieties of grape that will enchant travelling oenophiles.
Croatia
Croatia is geographically very diverse and has two climatic regions, Mediterranean and continental, so is home to many varieties of grape and a wide range of good wines.
The country has about 60 vineyards and the majority of are small, with relatively few big wine producers.
The production of white wines dominates. Croatia’s eastern region, Slavonia, with its wine centres of Kutjevo and Ilok, is the motherland of grasevina, a dry white wine with a medium alcohol content and a strong bouquet, very similar to riesling.
Some Slavonian wine producers have opened their cellars to visitors so the impression so people can get away from the heatwave, take a rest in a chilled cellar and taste freshly-tapped wine from the barrel.
Another popular wine from another part of the country, plavac mali, is the leading variety in the Dalmatia area. It has a strong taste which recalls the sweetness of blackberries or dark cherries with some notes of spice and pepper.
Although Croatian wine is very often associated with summer, the seaside and plates of seafood, the country’s biggest wine celebration happens in the autumn.
St. Martin’s Day is celebrated on November 11, and in Croatia is known as Martinje, “the day when must turns into wine”, marks the end of the farming year and the beginning of the harvest.
Martinje is mostly celebrated in continental Croatia where people enjoy dishes such as goose with mlinci (dried flatbread soaked in water), chestnuts, sausages and sour cabbage, all accompanied by young wine.
Macedonia
Macedonia, a country with almost 300 sunny days in a year, has a very suitable climate for grape-growing. In fact, in the former Yugoslavia, 80 per cent of Macedonia’s grapes were exported in bulk and ended up bottled elsewhere in Yugoslavia or abroad.
Growers cultivate regional, international and a few indigenous strains of grapes, while red wine dominates production.
Macedonia’s wine region is Povardarie, set on the hills and valleys through which the river Vardar flows, and 80 per cent of the country’s wineries are located there.
Production is concentrated in the Tikves Wine District in the Povardarie region, and the most common varieties are the red vranec and the white smederevka.
Vranec is a dry wine, with a deep red colour and an intense bouquet, with notes of fruit and berries. The Intrepid Travel website recommended that if a visitor to Macedonia can only bring back one bottle, vranec should be the one.
Macedonian reds also go well with typical Macedonian cuisine – grilled meat, aged cheese or tomato-based salads.
In September in the central Macedonian town of Kavadarci there is an annual event called Tikveshki Grozdober, which involves grape- and wine-tasting as well as a series of concerts.
On February 14, when most of the Western world celebrates Valentine’s Day, Macedonian wine-makers traditionally hold their own celebration, pruning their vines and wishing for a plentiful year ahead.
Moldova
Moldova is known all over the world for its white, red and rosé wines wines.
Moldovans have been cultivating grapes for thousands of years and almost every household has its own little vineyard and its own cellar to keep wine barrels.
Today, Moldova has the biggest density of vineyards in the world, covering 3.8 per cent of its territory and 7 per cent of its arable land, according to official statistics.
The wine industry is very important for the country’s economy, accounting for 3.2 per cent of its GDP and 7.5 per cent of total exports, and employing thousands of workers in about 140 companies.
For more read the full of article at The Balkaninsight
