The Bath & Wiltshire Parent’s wine columnist, Ben Franks FRSA, shares the new sparkling wine range from Istenič winery in Slovenia.
I think we’ve got ‘Dry January’ all wrong. Of all the months in the year, why spend the coldest month, full of short days and tax returns, giving up a good glass of wine? We should do ‘Dry July’ instead, when the sun’s shining and we can swim in the sea or kick the sand up with our toes as we lie back on beach towels.
Rather than sipping lime sodas, let’s embrace January. Let’s go for fizz and pop corks with good friends. Let’s mingle in front of the fireplace after a year or so of being apart and sip sparkling wine while we talk about our Christmas holidays and having to go back to work. Let’s eat too much Manchego and quince jelly so that new gym membership feels worthwhile!
While you might immediately think about a glug of Prosecco or which Champagne to buy, take a minute… Let’s at least celebrate the New Year with new experiences.
That seems the perfect opportunity to introduce you to Janez Istenic and his family, who are based in Bizejsko, Slovenia. Janez is Slovenia’s former international goalkeeper-turned-winemaker and has built a winery focused purely on fizz. He was the first to create traditional method sparkling wine in the country as early as 1968. Today he continues to make critically acclaimed sparkling wines, while his son Miha manages the business and his daughter Barbara represents the wines around the globe.
Firmly on the map for outstanding fizz, as far as wine critics are concerned, it’s a wonder most of us have never heard of these gems. At Novel Wines, we’re incredibly excited by that – as it means we get to be Istenic’s exclusive importer.
In the new range, we have four wines: Barbara Sec NV, No. 1 Special Cuvee Brut NV, Gourmet Rose Vintage 2016, and the Prestige Cuvee Vintage 2013. These wines are made from a mixture of grapes grown in Bizeljsko, an eastern valley region of Slovenia bordering onto Croatia near Zagreb. Here, under plenty of sunshine, they ripen to develop plenty of fruit character. That means you end up with a juicier, riper sparkling wine than you would in the colder regions of Champagne. Two of the wines also use indigenous grapes like Rumeni Plavac, which is bursting with peach notes. This adds softness and makes for a very crowd-pleasing style of fizz.
Barbara Sec NV (£16.99, Novel Wines) is named after Janez’s daughter and is an off-dry style of sparkling. It’s made with Chardonnay, a noble grape from Champagne that adds green apple notes to the wine, Rumeni Plavac, giving that peachy fruit, and Laski Rizling, adding freshness. It is made in the same way as Champagne, with second fermentation in bottle, so it’s ultra-creamy and has notes of toasted brioche, thanks to lees ageing (where the yeast rests in the bottle for over a year, adding extra flavour to the wine). This is a gastro-loving fizz, best served with fish goujons, salmon blinis or a burger stuffed full of melted blue cheese.
The No. 1 Special Cuvee Brut NV (£19.99, Novel Wines) is named after Janez’s old shirt number when he played footie for Slovenia. This is a more serious, drier offering with a mix of Rumeni Plavac, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. It’s full of rich peach, summer berries and buttercream. Fruitier than Champagne and endlessly good with creamy pasta or gnocchi dishes. It would also sing with pizza.
For an extra special start to January, the Gourmet Rose Vintage Brut 2016 (£21.99, Novel Wines) is a proper treat. Made entirely from Pinot Noir, which is generally better enjoyed with younger vintages, this perfectly aged example has a fine and racy mousse with hints of redcurrants, cream and biscuit. It loves being paired with fish n’ chips, or mackerel, but would also stand up to dishes like veal.
If you’re quick, you might even be able to taste one of our last bottles of Istenic’s Prestige Extra Brut Vintage 2013 (£27.99, Novel Wines), which has flown off our shelves since getting the nod from Decanter’s Caroline Gilby MW and a brilliant write-up by Tamlyn Currin on Jancis Robinson MW’s website, the world’s most influential wine critic. That should be testament enough to how good this wine is! A mix of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, it’s a zingy mix of biscuit, brioche, meringue, lemon and honey. Something different and thoroughly enjoyable.
Whether you dive in and have a taste of extraordinary Slovenian fizz, or just sip a favourite wine in the evening with someone you love, I hope your January is anything but dry.
Fancy joining Novel Wines for an upcoming event? Have a look at their latest calendar of tastings online here!