12.8.12

Supermarket Sweep Part 3: Plantaze Vranac 2009, Basen Skadarskog jezera

Back to my little Russian supermarket round the corner! This time it was a real premiere for me. I never ever had wine from Montenegro. I can't really tell you why they had this Montenegrin wine in a Russian supermarket in Germany!?! Maybe a certain cyrillic connection?!?
Vranac or Vranec is an autochthons varietal of the central-southern Balkan (Montenegro, Serbia, Macedonia, Albania and Kosovo) which produces wines with a firm tannic structure, plenty of potency and extreme lively acid. Apparently the actual name means something like “black stallion”. I hope it won’t be a very wild one!


Its colour was really purple, but not thick or totally tinted. It seemed somehow vivid and not alcoholic or ponderous. The nose had a lot of emergency breaking situation rubber smell, intense black currant, hints of sweet soy sauce, hay, later maybe some cinnamon and a lot of nose itching (I sneezed twice) and stinging components (mostly black pepper and acid). This last and not so joyful impression started fading after an hour or two. Then the nose appeared to me the way I’d imagine (totally generalized) a nice, clean, but simple, table wine from somewhere in South-East of Europe. The taste however was pretty challenging at first! I got a very lot of harsh tannins and really strong acid the first 90 minutes. A very abrasive, bone dry and austere wine! Not a lot of fruit! Maybe some black currant, charcoal, hints of cranberry, not such strong flavours of rubber (compared to the bouquet) and plenty of bitterness + gum pain. So, at first not such an harmonious fellow I might dare to say! Luckily this changed substantially. The harshness tamed and a down-to-earth table wine appeared! No miracles happened, but a certain amount of harmony and balance came into the wine! Still, thousands of miles away from a fruit bomb or a palate affectionating character. No doubt about that! A nice, tart and probably honest wine for a hearty ingestion. The concentration was contenting. The complexity … um ... okay! No signs of overpowerment, no oak’erama or no tons of alcohol! Not so far away from a decent wine ;-). By far the best Supermarket Sweep Wine so far!



No comments: