Price: 80,00 kunas
More and more producers of Istrian Malvazija adds value to their wine with the help of bubbles and successfully competes with the growing Prosecco trend, but it is especially delightful when winemakers dedicate themselves to the popular category of “ripe Malvazija,” categorised in the sense that anything not from last year is “ripe” and aged.
The approach looking for the true aroma of Istrian Malvazija is often called “traditional,” although knowledge and technology is widely present, but also present is the fact that Malvazija has potential to be more than a superficial refreshment. Bubbles will serve this purpose better.
After my favourite Malvazijas by Brečević (Piquentum), Roxanich (Malvazijica), Palčić (Malvazija), Dobravc (Sonata), Legovina (Matura), Ritoša (Dorata) and a few more, this company is joined by Šinjora from the Prelac family.
With these wines it is not about pure aging in oak or almond wood. Such wines are often from older plantations which give different material and are differently vinified.
Maceration and spontaneous fermentation as phrase still frighten less-knowledgeable wine enthusiasts, but when they try the wine, something iconic stirs… maybe not after the first sip, but certainly after the second or third. It is ungrateful to “force” someone to taste again something that did not meet at first the preconceptions of a cooled scented, spineless liquid, but which “goes so well with seafood salad.” Can we compare this with musical affinity? When an album sounds so divine at first but you never listen to it again, compared to something you made yourself listen to again and in time discover the music and yourself by listening to it again and again.
What is common to listed wines is the pursuit of a true aroma of Istrian Malvazija. They are not extreme in any sense, we are the ones who are exclusive. Macerations are either shorter compared to red wines or under controlled temperature or both.
Šinjora spent 8 days in contact with the skin. Obviously the exact time it took to withhold the almond flower in its scent, and soften too. As if the soft aroma of Malvazija was deepened and refreshed with the procedure. It seems credible, without pronounced acidity. Without aggressive freshness, and yet fresher, warmed in a glass on a summer terrace, than a conventional clean&green ideal.
Longer lasting. Both in the glass and in the bottle. This is balance. This is Šinjora.
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