raffaele Mastrovincenzo

Slovenian wines Slovenian, an old country which is producing wine from a century ago. Well known for the long maceration with the skin contact in white grapes varieties, this practice has been made to give the wines characteristic and personality; most of the artisan think that in the skin there is the expression of the soil "Terroir". The protein on skin as anthocyanis, flavonoids and catechin acting as powerful antioxidants part of the family of tannins; also the tannins are a natural preservative in wine. In this part of the world most of the producers have great respect of the soil and a excellent ethic, they all working in organic farming so their wine are quite healthy but a bit different from the conventional winemaking, so sometimes you'll find unpleasant odor and excess of "volatile" (level of acetic acid present in a wine). Two of the wines I liked in my drinking time: Branko & Vasja Cotar from Komen in Gorjansko - i had the Drazna from 05,

2005 Trebbiano D'Abruzzo Emidio Pepe  In the country side of Abruzzo in a small town called Torano is situated a family vineyard with 15 hectares around 400 meter above sea level. The owner of this small grower is Emidio Pepe with the collaboration of his daughters producing a really nice wine with organic methods also applying some byodinamic principle. It is all based in the perfect balance between time and nature with the collaboration of the "contadino" craftsmen. The soil is  predominately clay and mixed with calcareous, the system training is called Tendone D'Abruzzo - see the picture below: Last week i tasted one of his Trebbiano D'Abruzzo from 05 - a very gold color flashing amber, nuttiness, candy aroma, chamomile and hint of Corbezzolo Honey was present on my nose.. The alcohol was warm with the potential expression of a hot vintage, smoothness  and complexity refined my palate. There were just a bit of volatile, but was hidden from the smokines