Seafood pasta and wine from Slovenia by Kristančič

July 7, 2011

I love seafood pasta and thought that we still had a beautiful bottle of white wine from Slovenia which was given to us by our friends Giuseppe and Lucjia which I opened for the occasion. I should have looked at the bottle more carefully. It turned out that it contained a red wine. Well, it was a Pinot Noir, the bottle was open and I did not mind to try it with seafood.

Light red colour of the Pinot

In fact the ‘2008 Modri Pinot’ by Kristančič winery from Slovenia is a wonderful wine and a good match for fish and seafood as well. The brothers Dušan and Marko Kristančič are doing a good job in their vineyards and the winery. Today three generations of the family work on the farm.

The front label of the Kristančič Modri Pinot

Their outstanding quality has been recognized internationally. Decanter for instance awarded gold and bronze medals for its wines in 2010. The website could me more informative, I think. However, the wines speak for themselves. I just wished to have a few more of them.

Back label: 14% alcohol is big in the Kristančič Pinot Noir

Thank you dear friends for providing us with this elixir from Slovenia, a country whose wines are not so well known as yet. No doubt, however, that they deserve to be further explored. So if you look for a holiday destination Slovenia might be the ideal choice for a vacation in Europe.

Address:
Kristančič Winery
Medana 29a
5212 Dobrovo
Goriška brda
Slovenija

Tel.: +386 5 39 59 533
Fax: +386 5 39 59 534
Mob.: +386 41 690 699

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Wine from Slovenia

December 15, 2009

The 2008 Lanthieri Zelen

It’s already some time ago that our firneds Lucia and Giuseppe brought us the above bottle of Slovenian wine. They said, “put it back fro a special occasion”, which we did. But this splendid Sunday warranted a special treat.

To say it from the outset, the ‘2008 Lanthieri Zelen’ by Agroind Vipava 1894, a wine co-operative in the Vipava valley, is a wonderful wine. It was our first wine from Slovenia ever, a complete novelty to us.

Zelen is an autochthonous grape variety from the Upper Vipava Valley in Slovenia. The Lanthieri brand is reminiscent of the Lanthieri family, noblemen in the region, valley and town of Vipava, also called the Slovene Venice.

The Vipava wine road is going through the valley where viticulture is the main rural business. About 3,000 acres are under vines. The region is home to some very old, indigenous varieties which cannot be found elsewhere, for instance Zelen, Pinela, Klarnica and Pikolit.

The history of wine-making in the Vipava valley is interesting. It reminds me a bit of our own history in my home town Trier. Also in the Vipava valley, the Celts and Illyrian tribes cultivated grapes long before the Romans arrived. This is also true for my own tribe, the Treverer, in the Mosel river valley.

The back label in Slovenian

The wine has a light-yellow colour and seems to be an aromatic type of wine. Floral notes of mediterranean herbs such as lavender and rosemary can be detected. Very dominant, however, is the dried-apricot taste, very lovely and very unusual, I found. The wine has structure and is well balanced, fresh and zippy.

Spicy clam pasta

We enjoyed it with a spicy, clam pasta. The wine was “strong” enough to not “go down” with the red peppers, but, instead, held itself very well. I am sure we will not find any wine from Slovenia in Bangkok wine shops. I guess we have to visit Slovenia and detect its treasures during our next trip to Europe.

Thank you Lucia and Giuseppe for giving us this wonderful gift. We apprecite your generosity and we know how heavy wine bottles are.

I think Slovenia might have the potential to become the “wine Mekka” of tomorrow.

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