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.

The same day that we paid a trip to the Hungarian side of Pfneisl (which is actually the separate company of Pfneiszl), we also took a trip across the Austrian/Hungarian border that no long exists due to the 2007 Schengen enlargement. After a bit more of a trip, we were able to see how wine making was for the Austrian side of things. As we quickly saw near the small town of Deutschkreutz, winegrowing appears to be going very well. The family has been making wine for over a century in this area and to date now harvests from an astounding 70 hectares (175 acres) of vineyard land. It's quite overwhelming to stand in the middle of it. This is of course made all the more impressive by the extremely modern tasting room and headquarters that they constructed, which you can see in the photo above. The structure has won numerous design awards and is often featured in roundups of impressive winery architecture.     Naturally, buildings are great because you need somewhere to age and taste the wine, but what is of course most important is the wine itself. Pfneisl offers a lovely range of wines with potent reds that are typical of the Burgenland area, punctuating their repertoire. Overall the wines are telling of a winery that has been in business for a long time. There is common consistency to everything that they do. Whether you're tasting a Shiraz, Merlot, or a Cabernet Sauvignon, you know that it's from Pfneisl. It's an admirable quality that speaks well of the wines, although I often enjoy my wines a bit more wild, which you see a great deal more in the ones from Pfneiszl in Hungary.     We had a brief tasting, but it included their 2005 Shiraz, which is aged in American oak. It's a very smooth, enjoyable wine. The flavors are consistent to the point of being a bit bland, but they stop just short, giving some strong, underlying elements. The oak is rather strong, but it does give way to subtle blackberry aromas in the nose.     The 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon puts forth a lot of dark oak aromas on the nose. Surprisingly, these give way to a lovely, smooth body that makes for great sipping and could easily be paired any number of foods, especially spicy dishes like Thai or Indian curries. As the wine opens up, it develops a sweet pine quality to the nose that is very pleasing. Naturally, the finish is smooth.     We then moved on to the upper echelon wines which started with the 2005 Pentagon. This wine is a blend of Cab Sauv, Merlot, Shiraz, Pinot, and Blaufränkisch/Kékfrankos. It wasn't any surprise that after tasting the single varietal Cab Sauv, that this was once again very, very smooth. It opens up with a touch of bite coming from the oak, but mellows out with air with the body being easygoing the whole time. There is a bit of sweet berry to the finish. Oddly enough, to me it seems like the Pinot comes through quite a bit, despite it being in the least amount of the blend.     We finished with the Hexenberg. This is a 55/45 blend of Merlot and Shiraz. The aging regimen includes three years in French barrique which the first half of is in new barrels before being switch the those that are aged. We were told it could even stand for another decade of aging if one wished. Again, the wine was smooth and silky. It had a complex makeup to it that only slightly betrayed like boysenberry in the body, but to a slightly higher degree some young citrus as well, which was a surprised. The finish is dead-on clean and perfect. It's an excellent wine, but when trying to decide which I would choose between this and the Pentagon, I would have a tough choice as they are both excellent.     Everything concluded a great series of wines from an established winery. While often hard to find outside of Europe if in the area and you see a bottle, give it a try, you will absolutely not regret it a glass, or two, or... maybe even a whole bottle of any of these wines.

Pfneiszl is a young winery on old lands. Or actually, it's an old winery on its own old lands if that makes any sense. You see Pfneiszl (or Pfneisl depending on which side of the Hungarian/Austrian border you're on) is an old family winery based in both Hungary and Austria. It's just that in Hungary, the 27 hectares that made up their wine growing lands were seized by the former communist regime of Hungary in the name of collectivization. After that happened, they had to "make due" with the 70 hectares that the family kept in Austria just on the other side of the border. In 1993, these lands were returned to the family after decades of pumping out cheap bulk wine that was mostly sold to Russia. By this time, on the Austrian side they had been making very well-recognized wines and in what must be one of the most incredible gifts I've ever seen from a parent, they gave this 27 hectares to their daughters to work up and establish as a Hungarian winery.     These stories are not uncommon in the area of Sopron (pron. Shohprohn) in the far east of Hungary on a peninsula of territory that sticks in to Austria, right in to the middle of the very nice Burgenland winegrowing region. The Pfneisl sisters (they grew up in Austria, thus the spelling), Birgit and Katrin have now been running the vines for several years and bottled their first vintage in 2004. A good deal of replanting happened 10 years ago to replace a number of vines, although some of their older vines still remain. These days, they're growing Kékfrankos, Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, Merlot, Sangiovese, Malbec, Carmenére, Zenit, and as amazing as it is, even some Zinfandel. Birgit's study of winemaking around the world quickly becomes evident in the diverse selection of grapes.     While they have a tasting room near the center of Sopron, they took us out to a tasting amongst the vineyards overlooking Lake Fertö, which is a wide, flat, reedy lake that is at most two meters deep. Once up in the vineyard, one can see that it creates for an excellent micro climate that allows for a great deal of sun to hit the vines all year. Overall, you can taste this in the wines, as they hold a great deal more depth than other wines from just over the hill. But, enough about history, let's talk about the wines themselves.     We started off with their take on the Sparkling White Wine, which they call Sparkelina. We tasted the 2007 vintage and found it to be not too dry and very even-tempered. It has a clean finish and while I'm not a huge fan of the bubbly in general, I found their version to be quite pleasant and pleasing to drink. From there, it was on to the Kékfrankos 2006 'Classic'. It's a blend of grapes that have been aged in stainless steel with 30% in old Hungarian barrique. The nose is very calm and mild. The body is easy to drink and rather light and seemingly typical of Kékfrankos from the region, but light blackberry tones give way to a touch of pepper and other spices that you can taste near the end and in to the finish of the wine.     It was then on to one of Pfneiszl's signature wines, which is the Tango. We tasted the 2006 which is a blend of 30% Cabernet Sauvignon, 60% Merlot, and 10% Shiraz. The nose is light with a hint of vanilla and stronger blackberry elements to it. The body is smooth and the finish is pleasing. As the wine breathes more, it becomes more and more pleasing and is a wine that I would really recommend for just bout any meal as it is even-tempered and mellow, while at the same time carrying a good deal of flavor.     The Kékfrankos 2004 is a vintage that was aged in barrique for 22 months. Again, the nose has blackberry aromas to it, but it develops a slightly more complex nature with herbs coming through. A number of the aromas drop out in the body, but the berry tones stay quite prevalent and the body is a good deal more dry than the other wines of theirs we tasted, yet it is still quite pleasant.     The 2005 Shiraz has what I describe as a very creamy body which according to Birgit is from an extended fermentation period in the barrique. The barrique are French oak due to the 18 month stay in them, the wine takes on a number of vanilla qualities.     Their 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon proved to be a nice surprise. Other Cabs from the region, I've often found to be rather flat given that I've been spoiled growing up on California Cabs. But the Pfneiszl Cab is not flat at all. It is dry, but very flavorful. The body is complex and earthy. It doesn't have the "cherry nose" to it that I've often found in other Central European Cabs. Birgit said that it had just been bottled a few months previous, so it was still under a bit of bottle shock, but irregardless, it was a very enjoyable wine to drink. Perhaps this is due to the 24 months it spends in Hungarian barrique.     The Impression Rouge is a blend of 50% Kékfrankos, 25% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 25% Merlot. There is good deal more oak to it, which is probably due to the newer barrique that are being used. The finish has a delightful touch of boysenberry to it, which was quite unexpected. It is also a delightful wine to drink with deep, woody tones.     One thing to note about these wines is that Birgit's style is to allow the wines to be a bit more "wild" in their flavors. She doesn't try to force a particular consistency to the wines and this allows them to each be their own and age as they may. While this may be a death knell for other younger winemakers, she manages to work the wines in this manner with a great deal of success, making each Pfneiszl vintage quite unique. To this end, they also give each wine vintage its own name based upon how they feel the grapes tasted for that year. For instance, 2004 was, "Cool Elegance" and 2005 was "Starling's Favorite". It's a nice touch that makes the wines have a bit more character than just a numerical year on them.

Over a summer, two travelers drink their way through the wines of Mediterranean Europe          In the very top northwest corner of Istria is a small little tip that juts out in to the Adriatic and is where the two very small towns of Bašanija and and Savudrija. It is here that the winery of Degrassi calls home. Of course, they don't grow any of their vines here, those 15 hectares are around Buje which is much further inland to the east. But here are their cellars and tasting room. They have been doing business in this location since 2006, although the company has been around for the last 11 years. After a brief glance around, it is easily seen that the family has very good taste with everything appointed in handmade furniture and nice, dark fixtures. It's also here that we learned the difference between Refošk and Teran, which are the same grape. Is the stem of the vine is red, is is Refošk. If the stem is green, it's Teran. There were also some geographical distinctions in the past that have since faded away, leaving just the confusion about the name and the fact that Degrassi is the only maker of Teran in Istria that we found, who actually call it Refošk. So with that cleared up, let's talk about the wines.     We started with the Bomarchese 2003, which is comprised of Malvazija. The nose on it is extremely meaty, mostly from the oak aging it receives. It smells something like prosciutto, which we feel is nearly always a good thing. These aromas do come in to the body and blend with flavors that are predominantly oaky in nature. The body is smooth, but can sit a bit heavy in the mouth, but that gives way to a smooth finish.     We quickly tasted the Malvazija 2006 for comparison and found it to have a smoother nose and some chestnut aromas to it. The body is smooth and the finish rather dry. It's a rather interesting wine overall as it's quite different from any other Malvazija that we've tasted.     For reds, we started with the 2006 and the 2005 Barrique Degrassi's Refošk. The 2006 is very earthy in its base. The body is very bright though, which is atypical of other Terans/Refošks that we've had and the body is very dry. In comparison, the 2005 has a similar nose to the 2006, but naturally with a bit more oak, due to the time spent in the barrel--18 months to be exact. The body is much, much smoother and you can taste a good deal more meat to it. The finish on this one lingers for a good deal of time, which we were pleased with. Degrassi told us that they believe the wine should be aged for a minimum of five years and we would definitely agree, although base upon the two years it already had, it may even be able to stand a few more years and still be optimal.     We closed out the tasting with their Cabernet Sauvignon 2005. It's a relatively dry example of the varietal in this region. It even has a dry nose to it. The body however opens up to some really great dark cherry flavors and the finish pulls the dryness all the way through to the end. It's tasty wine, albeit a bit light for those who really thirst for heavy body of California Cab Sauvs.     While a bit out of the way from the rest of the wineries, Degrassi are making some good examples of the wines in the area and worth a visit for those putting their way along the Vinska Cesta in the area. Their tasting room alone is worth the trouble to see, as it's quite classy.

Over a summer, two travelers drink their way through the wines of Mediterranean Europe          Our first encounter with the wines of Demian and the wine maker himself, Andy Šipetić was in Novi Sad, Serbia of all places. It was somewhat logical as we were there for a visit with friends and he was there for the wine festival that they've been holding for the last fourth years. While that visit gave us an initial taste of his wines, a lunch with the wines expertly paired to the dishes, and music played by Andy (who used to tour as a guitarist for the Gypsy Kings before making wine full time) we didn't get a chance to see his winery. For that, we'd have to go to Istria and so naturally, once we got to Istria we made our way down there.     The Demian winery has been producing in one way or another for about the last 80 years. From 1928 to the 1990's, they produced bulk wine for Italian producers. For the last 14 years, they started making their own wines and the last seven has seen their brand and production grow a great deal more. They produced 25,000 liters from six hectares of land in 2006. While this isn't a tremendous amount, Andy says that they are growing and will they'll have nine hectares producing next year. For wines, they stick to the Istrian staple of Malvazija, although they toss in a bit of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon as well.     In both Novi Sad and Istria, we started tasting with the 2006 Malvazija. When comparing the two tasting, it is obvious that this is a wine best served cold. In Novi Sad it was good. The nose was soft and the body was crisp. The finish started off fine, but opened up a great deal more with air. In Istria, we had the wine at about 12C, which is the proper temperature for it. It mellows out a great deal more and is very smooth. Melon flavors come in to the body and it becomes this wine that you can finish without even thinking about. It's very pleasing to drink and have on a hot day when we were at the winery.     For comparison, we had the 2004 Malvazija. It has a tad less alcohol to it and a more earthy nose. The overall characteristics were very similar to the 2006, but the wine was more complex, especially the body, showing how age treats this wine and it treats it very well. You might even be able to age this out for five years or a bit more and have it be quite optimal for drinking, albeit drinking should always be done cold.     We then tasted the 2003 Barrique, which is comprised of 60% Merlot and 40% Cabernet Sauvignon, making it something of an inverse Claret. It's a lovely wine and predictable so given that 2003 was a very good year for this region due to a perfectly hot summer. The nose is soft, betraying subtle earthy tones that grow as you bury your nose in the glass. The body is dry, but still complex, full of flavors and a mahogany woodiness to it that is very pleasing. The barrel comes through a great deal in the overtones of the finish, roughing up the grape a good deal to make you want to keep coming back for more. It's a wine of full, bold flavors that we found delicious and had to take home a bottle of for further enjoyment.     As one of the few people we visited multiple times, we were very thankful to have bumped in to Andy for not only giving us a taste of his very well-crafted wines, but also as an impetus to make the trip down to Istria in the first place. The region is getting hot and with good reason, considering wineries like Demian producing some top notch vintages in recent years.