Freshly mixed White from Jeruzalem: Conrad Fürst & Söhne Fürst Pod Stolpom 2010, Podravje

The Fürst Pod Stolpom is a white blend produced by a jolly young cooperation between the Fürst and Gross families with the central aim to revive the once well know Fürst winery and wine merchant in Slovenian Styria. The traditional winery was founded in the early 19^th century by the Bavarian immigrant Ernst Fürst. Until the family’s displacement in 1945 the winery developed to become one of the largest wine producers in Styria. Eventually in 2004 the families started to cultivated new grapes and opened for business. The grapes for today’s wine where grown on Jeruzalem and Haloze soil. Two of the most famous vineyards in all of Slovenian Styria. Apparently the 2010 was their first vintage ever and was already well received by the famous Slovenian wine critic Robert Gorjak. As I already mentioned today’s wine is a white blend which was composed of 55% Sipon (better known as Furmint), 25% Sauvignon Blanc and 20% of Pinot Blanc.

The colour in my glass seemed to be almost slightly green-yellow and pretty pale. Its nose was very, almost too, delicate and filigree. The Furmint and Sauvignon Blanc attributes took care of business. It appeared to be very very fresh. I got plenty of mild gooseberries, hay, wet grass and some lemon. After a couple of hours interesting scents lilac and candid lemon peels developed. Maybe some features of the Pinot Blanc share crawled out of their hideout. Altogether an interestingly, not too complicated or challenging, fragrance pattern. Like the nose, its taste was pretty delicate and lean as well. I got impressions of green spices, freshness, rather fierce lemon, maybe even highly concentrated lemon juice, some gooseberries and quite a lot of sturdy acid. Again after a couple of hours the body got strengthened by nuances of slightly broad Pinot Blanc features. Thank God (or somebody else)! Otherwise I probably had some problems to get a favourable opinion about this one. I could imagine the vines for this blend are fairly juvenile. I guess this wine lacks of edges, maybe some character, body and more precise fruit expression. Don’t get me wrong! It was a good wine! Maybe the future vintages will be a bit more pleasing and convincing. Who knows? ME, of course ;-)