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Articles about 'Bermet'

What is Bermet?

Posted 07 02 2007 by elia    0 Comments
 
Over a summer, two travelers drink their way through the wines of Mediterranean Europe
    
town
Downtown Sremci Karlovci
    Bermet is a sweet wine that is a specialty of northern Serbia's Fruška Gora wine region, in the Vojvodina province.
red
Red Bermet
It has between 16 and 18% of alcohol and it is usually served as a dessert wine, with coffee and cookies, but can also be served as an aperitif, much like Italian Vermouth. However, Bermet is produced in a different way than Vermouth, through maceration of 20 different herbs and spices. It can be made of red or white grapes, but the exact recipe is secret and held by only a handful of families in the town of Sremci Karlovci. Dulka winery, for example, told us that he makes the base of his white Bermet are župljanka grapes, a local variety, and Merlot for his red. Other vintners seem to use Portugieser, and others blend both red and white grapes.
white
White Bermet
    As the story goes, Bermet was very popular among the aristocracy of the Austro-Hungarian empire and was regularly exported to the court in Vienna in large quantities. Moreover, according to some documents, a few Bermets were even included in the Titanic's wine card, and it was exported to the United States over 150 years ago.
    As for Bermet's taste, it is sweet, but not overly so. It is a very thick, heavy wine that carries a lot of punch, so to compare it to Prošek, Tokaj, or Garnatxa would be a serious mistake.The body changes even more and is very nutty with chestnut tones to it. Then the finish opens up like how you would expect from a dessert wine with lovely sweetness that stays with you, yet there is a bit more complexity to it than that with some sharp sour cherry notes coming through just before it ends.
Tags: bermet    europe travels    serbia   

 

A Serbian Introduction Through Dulka

Posted 06 26 2007 by michael    0 Comments
 
Over a summer, two travelers drink their way through the wines of Mediterranean Europe
    
    
taste
A taste at Dulka
From Croatia, we traveled south through Montenegro (which is Plantaže country) and then north up to Belgrade. Curious about the local wine scene, we head up to the beautiful town of Sremski Karlovci, in the Fruška Gora wine region, to taste what the vintners in that area were doing with the grape.
    We found our way to Dulka (or Дулка in Serbian Cyrllic.) Đorđe Dragojlović (Dulka) is from a line of wine makers who started around 150 years ago in the region. Of course, the period of Communism severely impacted their production as they had to feed in to a central cooperative, just like any grape grower in the former Yugoslavia. But, with the beginning of the 1990's, they ramped up production again.
bottle
The Bermet
    He produces from eight hectares of land and makes about 36,000 liters of wine each year including a Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and next year, Sauvignon Blanc. One very unique wine that we tried was called Bermet. This is dessert wine that's rather hard to describe as it is its own creation. We're not aware of it being produced anywhere else, other then Serbia. The 2006 that we tried was definitely unique, strong, and very thick. We could easily see it as the end to a good meal of meat and cheese.
    Dulka makes more than just one Bermet, and produces a Beli Bermet a Beli Bermet as well, which is a white version. While we only tried what appears to be their flagship wine, it proved to be a very interesting and inviting introduction to what seems to be the relatively unknown world of Serbian wines.
Tags: bermet    europe travels    serbia   

 

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