The start of an email correspondence.

I remember Miha Batič, one of our Slovenian producers, telling me that his Great-Grandfather was Austrian, his Grandfather was Italian, his Father Yugoslavian, and now he is Slovenian. They’ve been working the same land and living in the same house since 1592. While borders and nationalities change, the vineyards have remained the same.      To this end, Italian and Slovenian producers are in the process of creating the first ever Trans-Border DOC (Denominazione di Origine Controllata) that celebrates the Carso (Italian) or Karst (Slovenian) region. For instance, there are already joint community initiatives such as Scenarios and Flavours from the Karst Plateau without Frontiers based in Trieste that functions much like a “Doctors Without Borders” for food and wine. Concerning wine, they focus on the grape called “Terrano” (Italian) or “Teran” (Croatian and Slovenian) coupled with the iron rich “Terra Rossa” (red earth) unique to the region. These are red wines with off the charts acidity, enough minerality to meet a healthy diets monthly quota, and often a slightly tangy wild berry flavor that make it an incredible wine of place. It’s a killer with Prosciutto.      With this in mind, I’ve had many buyers admit they love the wines I’ve shared with them but immediately follow it up with, “They don’t fit anywhere on my list” or "They won't sell here." At the same time, they carry wines that share virtually the same soil, grape, climate, and history but happen to have DOC, DOCG, or IGT instead of Product of Croatia or Slovenia on their labels. If Terroir driven wines are really at the heart of their philosophy, why are politically drawn borders getting in the way?      The following is an actual email exchange that argued why a focus on Northeastern Italian wines should also consider the wines of Istria, Croatia. For privacy, the names have been blocked out.                    

Jean-Michel and Tomo of Kabaj - Miha Batič.

We are pleased to announce the visit of two Slovenian wine makers in California in May: Miha Batič represents a pioneering organic estate in Vipava Valley. Jean-Michel Morel and Tomo Čeh come from Kabaj in Goriška Brda. Kabaj is reknowned for their unique Amphora and long maceration wines. Meet them at one of the many events we are planning. You can read the full schedule on the new community site Slovenes in USA.
    Please welcome Jean Michel of Kabaj when he makes his 1st step into an American Wine Bar: Terroir NY Tribeca, Thursday, May 12, 1-4pm. Jean will pour a selection of his finest wines for trade & media. R.S.V.P. required. On his trip from New York to Los Angeles Kabaj will meet and work with two James Beard Award nominees: The first is Chairman Paul Grieco of Terroir NY who was nominated for Excellence in Wine Service. We are very happy that Paul graciously agreed to host Kabaj for his first ever tasting in the United States at his renowned wine bar in Tribeca.
    It is an honor that the first wine dinner featuring the wines of Slovenian breakout Kabaj will take place at LA's iconic AOC. Paired with the cuisine of 2010 James Beard Award Nominee Suzanne Goin by the chef herself, this is a once only experience. The combination of Kabaj and AOC is deeper than great wine and great food.
The kitchen that French vigneron Jean Michel Morel and his wife Katja maintain at the Kabaj estate in Western Slovenia has a decidedly Provencal touch thanks to Jean's French roots. This elegant meal represents nothing less than a meeting of masters is also a cross cultural dialogue. The comprehensive line up of Kabaj wines will include 2 vintages of the estates benchmark "Amfora". This is sure to be one of the finest dinners we have yet been a part of. Please join us as we toast to them both this Monday, May 16th at 7pm at AOC. Please see the menu here.
    Watch a short & sweet video about Kabaj.

memories of a warm Welcome at the Batič estate.

Miha Batic’s great-grandfather made wine on his property in the old Austria. His grandfather made wine on the same property in Italy; Miha’s father, in his turn, in Yugoslavia, and now Miha makes wine with him in Slovenia. As Miha explains it, the rulers and their rules don’t matter so much as the land in the Vipava Valley that has been cultivated by his family since 1592. For him, as he explains his family’s wine to 60 appreciative guests at a tasting dinner in New York, it always comes back to the land, to nature.     The Batic winery lies on 18 hectares of land on the westernmost edge of Slovenia, 15 miles from the Italian border. Grapes are planted on the slopes edging the valley, where the dry breeze of the Mediterrean climate meets the Alpine chill. The Vipava Valley is historically known for its white wines—and Batic makes ageworthy Pinot Gris, as well as Chardonnay and Sauvignon—but Old World–style reds are produced as well: Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and Cabernet Sauvignon. Indigenous varieties are blended with international in the Batic cuvée Bonisimus: Pinela, Rebula (known as Ribolla a few kilometers away in Italy), Chardonnay, and Pinot Gris. Zelen and Vitovska are also grown.     Batic father and son are clear that it’s the growing that matters—not the cellar. Wines are made in the fields. Batic wines are farmed organically, and regional tradition places importance on farming by the lunar cycle: knowing the effect of the cycle on planting, growing, racking, or bottling. Such biodynamic principles may be trendy elsewhere, but Miha explains their uses for potato growing as much as grape growing, and one has the sense this is just old-fashioned farming, looking to nature rather than science for guidance. “Every step is a step back to our roots.”     These wines are not “modern”—they are true to the land and the grape, and are made only in successful vintages, and in tiny quantities (most in the low thousands of bottles). Old ways, now newly popular, are used in the cellar, too. The wines are fermented on wild yeast, and sulfur is used sparingly, if at all. Red and white wines alike see oak—usually in three- to five-year-old Slovenian barriques, but Batic will soon move back to larger, old Slovenian barrels. The wine is nicely balanced, with an Old World oak profile that settles beneath the spicy fruit of the Merlot, and adds a touch of oxidative interest to the velvety body of Bonisimus.     Borders may shift, as well as winemaking trends, but the wine world is slowly coming full circle, and the old ways of land and nature may emerge as the one cutting-edge method that carries us forward. Batic has waited for 400 years.     (text and photo by Katerine Camargo, Camargo Wine Support LLC ©2010)

a great combo: lobster with Batic Cabernet Sauvignon Rose & Enjingi Grasevina.

Most of my Christmas’ are spent in Maine at my parents. Their house is on an island in the Atlantic, just off the coast. Winters are both beautiful and brutal. No matter how cold the wind, or rough the seas the seafood remains ridiculously fresh. This year brought a special surprise; soft shell lobster. These freshly molted “bugs” are the unquestionable pinnacle of the lobster world; super sweet and tender. You wont find them far from where they are caught as they are much more vulnerable, to even gentle travel, than there hard shelled brethren. There is no reason to get fancy with them. In fact you can faintly read “steam only, serve with butter” on some of their shells. So what do you drink with succulent lobster in this arctic cold? Big Chard is the standard prescription but we have forced this for years, unless you are drinking properly aged top tier Burgundy the pairing rarely works. So Cabernet of course!     The pairing logic: In a form this naked, lobster is best complemented by a soft, full bodied wine. We started with a decent feline scented Sauvignon Blanc from Chile, which the lobster made thin and astringent, so when I popped the two wines specifically selected for dinner, I did so with confidence.     The first was Ivan Enjingi’s 2003 Grasevina (Italian Riesling) from the continental region of Croatia. It could be argued that Enjingi is the Andy Warhol of wine. The 2003 Grasevina “Krasna Berba" (late harvest) is a liquid contradiction. Dense and alcoholic but savory, mineralic and complex. Not old world, nor new, Enjingi is “Other Worldly”. Grasevina is typically drunk fresh but the good ones will age like the diamond hard Semillon of Australia’s Hunter Valley. We caught this one in its adolescence, starting to show its maturity but still brash and bouncy. With the lobster it was the sauce. Herbal and rich, the wine complements the lobster as if made for it, and vice versa.     2007 Batic Rose of Cabernet Sauvignon – Vipava Valley, Slovenia. If Batic were a forge their Cabernet Sauvignon rose would be the Swiss army knife. It will appease the Cabernet narrow, fans of white zinfandel and hard core wine geeks. More texture than flavor, it is varietal cabernet without the color, tannins and smack. Musk, pepper and fruit are an unusual counterpoint to lobster but here it fits, actually accentuating the briny quality of the lobster. This is only a positive with the freshest of seafood. Ivan (wow I did not realize both producers share a first name) would love the combination, local, simply made and delicious.     Not expected, not traditional but perfectly suited. Cold weather is great for red wine but if the food demands; as it does in coastal Maine. Whites and Roses can too be kings.