Over a summer, two travelers drink their way through the wines of Mediterranean Europe          The last stop on our whirlwind tour of Istrian wines was Kozlović. The location that the family has settled in is spectacular one, near the village of Momjan. While the village is typical of the type you see in Istria, it has a nice standout feature which is the ruins of a fortress up on a hill. Like something out of medieval fairy tale, this stony skeleton floats about the small valley where the family built their current cellar in 1904 on a hill, overlooking some of their vines.     Even when you strip away the setting and just focus on the wines, you see that this is a family that knows what it is doing when it comes to the grape. Their Malvazija can be gotten here and is getting to be recognized as a quite stellar make of this Istrian varietal. But there at the helm of everything is Gianfranco Kozlović. He is a character who loves his wines and loves the process of making wines.     His various philosophies and ideas about wine are one of the few drinking companions that are better than a well-cured pršut. For instance, he really wants to stay with the native varietals that grow in the area, but he isn't afraid to try a little Shiraz or Cabernet Sauvignon to see what happens. He likes to age his in Malvazija in acacia barrels (which is traditional), but he'll also try aging other wines in acacia to see what the result is. He finds barrels to work very well with reds, but thinks that the whites should only be touched by them for a bit of spice and toast. He is a big believer in the new technologies that make wine production more easy to control, since while producing the old way is fine, why do it if there are better ways? And our favorite idea of his is that after you've finished experimenting, you really need to go back and ask yourself what is it that you like to drink and enjoy. It is this line of thinking that made their very clever logo come about (two friends drinking together), which Gianfranco sees as a symbol of the pleasure of drinking, friendship, and the moment of the toast.     Once we worked through the thinking behind the wine, we learned that Kozlović is producing 100,000 bottles a year and he is fortunately looking to export more, which is good news for us. His production is mostly white, with that taking up about 80% of his bottles and the other 20% of red being comprised of Teran (Refošk).     It was 15 years ago that they started as the business that they are today and in 1998 they built a new addition on to the original cellar that is now over 100 years old. They have been growing in other ways too. Just three years ago, they were producing from just three hectares. Today, they cull their grapes from 16 hectares. While they are looking to have much more land, this has been difficult due to the political issues (yes, even wine is political) and they are looking to get their grapes from a focused 25-30 hectares in order to maintain a consistency to the wine, which is always appreciated by we drinkers.     So, we've learned a bit about the history and thinking that goes in to these wines, lets talk about the wines themselves in Part 2 .

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.

Over a summer, two travelers drink their way through the wines of Mediterranean Europe          Fresh off our hibernation from the beach while in Slovenia, we headed back out to the coast of Croatia. This time, we focused on the region of Istria, that little triangle of a peninsula off the far west of Croatia. After the rather arduous task of finding a place to stay without a reservation in high season, we set about exploring some of the wines of the area, especially those along the Istrian Wine Route. Our first stop was Veralda.     We met with the owner, Luciano Visintin. His family has made oil and wine for somewhere around 1,000 years--give or take a few. In 1997 they started they took the family craft and made it a proper business, producing some 300,000 to 400,000 liters of wine a year, once again, give or take a few. They produce this large quantity of wine from 26 hectares of land and they also buy from a few vineyards who neighbor their vines. Out of all this, the bulk of what they produce is Malvazija. Additionally, they produce Muškat, Teran (Refošk), Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Ancelotti.     To begin with in our tasting, we had the 2006 Veralda's Malvazija. Luciano told us that he considers Malvazija as not a pretty woman, but more of a goof friend, which we took to mean that it is a basic drinking wine without a lot of flash. His vintage has a rather neutral nose with a touch of herbs to it. It's rather hard to classify and is drifts towards being quite light. There is a nice effervescence in the body that carries in to the finish and sticks with you. Luciano told us that it is an everyday wine and that it is best drank within the first year of bottling.     From there, we tried the 2006 Refošk. This wine is also called Teran in this area, which can be confusing, although it is essentially the same grape as grown just to the north, up in neighboring Slovenia. The nose is slightly sweet and tasty with bold fruit aromas. It drifts a bit in to being a littler earthy, but it leads in to a very easy to drink body with a bright finish. As it breaths, it mellows out considerably and would most likely do with with at least a solid hour out of the bottle before drinking. This 2006 vintage was harvested quite late in October and we were told that the 2007 vintage is going to be quite good due to the heat of the summer, which will allow for an earlier harvest.     We closed out with the 2004 Merlot Riserva. This is a delightful example of tasty barrique aging as the wine spends a year in French Oak. The body is very soft and the wine is well balanced overall with a nice, easy finish. We found a bit of berry and chocolate tones in the body. Despite how mellow it is, there is a touch of dryness to it that is quite typical of the region, but it is very understated. We found it to have a great deal of depth, which Luciano explained to us was from the dirt in this area of Istria, which is astoundingly blood red.     A nice selection of wines in general and there are others to taste for those who are curious, as well as the olive oil that they produce, which is brilliant in aromas and flavors.

Over a summer, two travelers drink their way through the wines of Mediterranean Europe.          The Konavle region is at the most southern point of Croatia, even further south than Dubrovnik, bordering Montenegro. Historically, it was the region that produced all of the food for what was the Ragusan Republic and is present-day Dubrovnik. These days, the fields are covered with a great many grapevines and a lot of that feeds in to Dubrovački Podrumi, which is a very large wine producer in Gruda, a small town at the southern end of Konavle.     Upon first glance, the building is anything but welcoming. The concrete construction that echoes the "aesthetic" of Socialist construction is menacing. There is no business name out front and we had to look for the tell-tale signs of new bottles on palettes to know we were in the right place. With some rather awkward Croatian, we talked to a worker who was leaving for lunch and were guided around to the other side of the building where they've built a very pleasant tasting room, but without any signs pointing you there. Upon entering, we could see why the signs were scarce, since it was very apparent that they were set up for large tour buses to come through on scheduled trips. Only two people on a wine tasting quest were something of an anomaly. Regardless, they were very hospitable, found someone in the office who had the best English, and took us in for a tasting.     Dubrovački Podrumi produces a wide range of wines and they let us taste several of them. We first started with their basic table wines. The 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon was a light wine at 12.3% alcohol that had subtle fruit tones and licorice flavors that kicked back in to a smooth finish. The 2004 Plavac at 12.5% alcohol was very dry, but had a light, delicate nose that was surprising given the quality level of the wine. These were both below six euros a bottle, so it's easy to see how they're regarded as basic, everyday wines given the price.     Our host then pulled out two of their higher-cost wines that started at 22 euros a bottle. The 2004 Trajectum was very good. The nose had a bit of rose to it which made the body difficult to describe, despite it being made from Cabernet Sauvignon grapes. A little bit of berry, a touch of mint, and a slight earthiness are the words that came to mind for this wine. Very tasty, but it would be a big departure for the normal Cab drinker, although some might really enjoy that.     The other wine we tasted of this level was the 2004 Merlotina. Straight out of the bottle, it was phenomenal. The nose had great plums tones to it as well as an aroma that, for lack of a better word should be described as delicate cake. Through the body, you could almost taste the earthy stones from which the vines grow. It is comprised of 100% Merlot and is at least on a par if not higher quality than most Merlots we've had in California.