New Wines
New Wines Stateside landing - 5/15
Enter phase 1 of the #summerofSloCro22, where we are about to unleash an onslaught of incredible new wines and producers from Southeastern Europe, to add to our already existing diverse portfolio. This is not a test!
Very grateful for the support this portfolio continues to see and shan’t be disappointed with the new additions that are coming.
Pomalo Wines – Skin Contacts and freshy Plavina!!
The next wave of Pomalo’s rise, in what surely will be the beginning phase of “The Year of Pomalo”. If the last 2ish years have taught us anything… its that we all need to chill tf out! These wines are all about deliciousness, fun and natural expressions of unique and Croatian varietals.
This wave of still wines, includes a zingy skin contact Debit from Dalmatia, a juicy and wild skin contact Grasevina (Welschriesling) from Slavonia, and a freshy coastal red of Plavina from Dalmatia. The grand return of Pomalo Debit Pet Nat and its new knockout counterpart, Pomalo Plavina Pet Nat Rose (!!), are expected to land 5/15 and it is going to be BIG!
Natty Cvicek?! – New ‘Full Circle’ wines from Zajc
Cvicek SZN is upon us… and it’s all coming Full Circle!
We have long loved the crushable light reds of Cvicek from Zajc, but are excited that the Zajc family has finally started making wines the way they would like to see them, and experimenting with new and more expressive styles. The history of Cvicek is a very interesting one, and while it is an extremely popular wine of choice in Slovenia, it is also a polarizing one.
In the Middle Ages, there was a significant change in the viticultural systems in the specific region of Lower Carniola (now Dolenjska), and with the abolition of the old viticultural system, people started to neglect vineyards, vine decay grew larger and larger, and consequently, wine quality started to drop gradually. Becoming more and more sour, people referred to it as cviček (an old Slovenian word denoting very sour wine) and somehow the name stuck.
After gaining independence, the people living in Lower Carniola came to embrace this style of wine, and today it is one of the most popular styles of everyday wine consumption in all of Slovenia! Enter modern technology, this style of wine could easily be prevented and reverted to traditional red wine. However the style was so popular, delightful and enjoyable, that new techniques were adapted to replicate and sustain this style of wine.
To come FULL CIRCLE, the Zajc brothers have turned back to Middle Age techniques of traditional native yeast fermentations and showing the most authentic expressions of the wild and truly unique (and crazy refreshing!) wines of Dolenjska. Don’t blink – these wines are dangerously refreshing and are going to go quick!
Slovenia’s Riesling Master – Hiša Joannes Protner
When you get up to the northern parts of Štajerska (translated literally in Slovenian to “Styria”), its easy to bounce back and forth from the Slovenia and Austrian border. In fact, there are frequent tiffs between Slovenia and Austria as to who was the first to claim the true “Styria” (Štajerska vs. Steiermark).
Well it comes as no surprise that this area is ideal for some amazing, acid-ripping and mineral crunching Riesling!
The small house of Boštjan Protner, located just a few miles away from Maribor, has long focused almost entirely on Riesling grown on cold wind rich valleys and slopes. Now along with his two children, Martin and Ana (this year’s official Slovenian wine Queen!), they are organically farming 13 hectares of Riesling, and a few others, and making exceptionally refreshing and balanced dry Riesling through native fermentations.
We are very excited to add this addition into our portfolio, just in time for summer and oysters! Please make sure to mention to grab a sample of this – your mind will be blown.
Tomac: Biodynamic Croatian Sparkling and Qvevri Wines!
We already sent a small intro for these, but so won’t dive too far in here – but after spending a week with Tomislav and Martina a couple weeks back at RAW, it is even more evident that these wines are some of the most expressive, interesting, and immersive natural wines coming out of Croatia right now.
We were frequently told that the Tomac wines were some of the highlights of the entire RAW show in NYC, and we have a small amount of their Diplomat Brut Nature, and their two Marany wines, fermented in qvevri.
We LOVE these wines – you can grab some now, or you can wait. But you will certainly be hearing about them before long, either way.
