Ales Pokorny

For a wine lover, tasting newer wines is always an exciting proposition. It gives his/her  palate a sense of novelty as well as a level of familiarity when encountering similar wines le prochain fois.

Likewise, a sense of déjà vu visited me as I tasted an array of interesting wines from the Czech Republic in New Delhi even as the Indian summer started its upsurge of notoriety. The tasting, conducted in the Czech Embassy premises, was introduced by Mr. Milan Tous, Head of Economic Section and saw attractive bottles putting the best foot forward to entice the audience into exploring them further. The ‘explorers’ didn’t disappoint either.

I had reason to feel at home since it was just the last year that the same sommelier Aleš Pokorný, had presented a bevy of Czech wines in his inimitable humoristic style that made people more curious to know about them. This year, humor duly in its place, Aleš went a step further to  cover Czech  wine regions in details, with the wines from these regions doing the tasting rounds simultaneously.

For those pressed for time, a quick snapshot of the event can be accessed through my FB post given below.  For those with an eye for details, I would  strongly recommend reading further.

https://www.facebook.com/pg/ravikjoe/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1285786324769744

One major hurdle in knowing Czech wines is the seemingly intimidating names on their labels. I attempted to simplify these names through my earlier post called 123 of Understanding Difficult Wine Labels published after the last year’s tasting. If you haven’t read it yet,  give it a look to see how simple a Rulandske Modre can become to decipher.

Coming to this year’s showcasing, a total of 10 wines and 3 spirits were presented in a guided- followed by a walk around tasting. Aleš presented the wines in tandem with highlighting the Czech wine regions and their quality system. I have tried to summarise these details in the following self explanatory and easily downloadable images.

Wines for tasting

Majority of Czech wine production is of white variety though rosés and reds are picking pace over the years. Ales highlighted that the Czech prefer to drink their wines young at higher levels of acidity rather than risking the loss of ‘balance’ due to the residual sugar becoming dominating. This aspect becomes more important on account of their quality system based on ‘must’ weight (higher ‘must’ weight implying more ripeness and hence more fermentable sugars) as also chaptalisation (a term used to denote adding sugar to ‘must’) which is allowed under the Czech wine law.

Sparkling wine Brut 2012
Producer: Chateau Winery Bzenec

A straw coloured crisp wine well suited as an aperitif.

Grüner Veltliner, Kabinet Wine 2015
Producer: Chateau Winery Bzenec

A delicate nose of white flowers and a little spice followed by a refreshing palate charecterised by high acidity and an off-dry style.

Pinot Blanc Selection of Grapes 2015  
Producer: Chateau Winery Bzenec

A refined expression of the varietal with floral and tropical fruit aromas followed by a balanced, medium finish palate.

Chardonnay Late Harvest 2014
Producer: Templar Cellars  Čejkovice

Medium gold colour with aromas of citrus and tree fruits. A refreshing medium-high acidity that could do better with a little mellowing- which would make this wine better enjoyable with its flavours fully opening up. Hence one can store this wine at least for a year before uncorking.

Tramin Late Harvest 2013
Producer: Templar Cellars  Čejkovice

One of my favourites of the day with its expressive nose and a fleshy delectable palate. A spicy finish capped the wonderful experience.

Pinot Noir Rosé, Kabinet Wine 2013
Producer: Winery Krist Milotice

Another jewel at the tasting. With its appetising deep salmon pink colour and a ‘gourmet’ nose of red berries and candy, the wine stood up with it’s palate as well- replete with a good structure, dry disposition and a lengthy finish.

Müller Thurgau, Quality Wine
Producer: Templar Cellars  Čejkovice

An entry level wine with a fruity nose, off dry palate and easy drinkability. Good for casual drinking particularly with spicy food.

Pinot Gris, Late Harvest 2011
Producer: Winery Krist Milotice

True to it’s varietal, this wine had a greyish straw colour and it had a nose of ripe peaches along with a yeasty accent. The acidity of the wine however seemed to be on the decline- which probably verified Ales’ statement about the Czech preferring to drink their wines young.

Tramin, Selection of Grapes 2011
Producer: Winery Krist Milotice

A wine with an expressive nose as expected. But for the residual sugar of 18 g/l (as informed by Ales) the acidity again seemed to be over the hill.

Blaufrankisch, Quality Wine
Producer: Templar Cellars  Čejkovice

Apart from the Pinot Noir Rosé, this was the other red grape wine for the tasting. An entry level red, this was a pleasing wine with its luminiscent ruby colour, a fruity and nutty nose and medium tannins firming up towards the finish.

Spirits for tasting (From producer R Jelínek)

The spirits came from one of the most reputed distillers of the Czech Republic who particularly specialises in fruit brandies- particularly plum brandy which is called Slivovitz in Czech language. The products offered for the tasting brought a novelty to the palate. But I will reserve my tasting notes till I confirm them with another tasting!

 

Vin, vino or wein – these words strike a common chord since all of them mean “wine” as we know the word in English, and have an uncanny phonetic similarity. Similar meaning words across languages have some common aspects, whether it is the syllables or the phonetics. And these can be related-to sub consciously.

The details, however, lie in deliberation and this brings us to the subject of difficult- to-comprehend wine names, if only so, initially.

According to a forecast by IWSR, global wine consumption  is poised to show impressive growth in the run up to the year 2017. Intensive promotion activities have been rolled out in the preceding years to introduce wine even to Spirits consumers. And wine producers from around the world are enthusiastic to have a share of this pie. The only hitch? Unfamiliar label terminology particularly when related to wines not familiar to the respective consumer.

I was a bit surprised (even if pleasantly) to receive an invitation from the Ambassador of the Czech Republic in India H. E. Mr Miloslav Stašek for a tasting of Moravian wines from the Czech Republic (Czechoslovakia bifurcated into the ‘Czech Republic’ and ‘Slovakia’ in the early nineties).

The guest Sommelier from the Czech Republic, Aleš Pokorný, presented very attractively labeled Czech wines to an audience of wine professionals in New Delhi. At the outset, I found that the wines were enjoyable, specially the Irsai Oliver that was aromatic and off dry with characteristics quite close to the Muscat varietal.

But, the wines that evening hit a perception barrier – that of unfamiliar names and I could not get myself to enjoy it as much as I should. So I delved deeper, I found that this problem was surmountable, provided some basics were followed. And presto! The 1-2-3 approach to understand difficult Wine Labels was structured.

The genealogy of grapes

Ever since man started cultivating grapes, and trans-continental voyages became a reality, grape varietals have proliferated to distant lands from their place of origin. Further, graftings have yielded derived varietals, giving rise to new genomes. These varietals have been interpreted differently in the local languages – depending on the country of cultivation, similar varietals will get different names. For example, Pinot Blanc is Weiss Burgunder in Germany/ Austria; whereas in the Czech Republic it is Rulandské Bílé.

At times, varietal names may differ within different regions of the same country too, but that will take us into the next level . I was able to engage Aleš in both an extensive (over time) and intensive (in content) exchange, and I chose the Czech varietals as a case study.

Drawing these parallels, we can easily get acquainted with different sounding but essentially the same varietals.

One: Establish phonetic similarity

Does Ryzlink ring a bell? Does Sylvánské sounds familiar? Indeed, these are Riesling and Sylvaner respectively, as we commonly know them. Identify phonetic indicators in unfamiliar wine names and you are already half way there. Some examples:

Tramin = Gewurztraminer
Vlašský = Welsch
Rýnský = Rhine
Veltlínské = Veltliner
Zweigeltrebe = Zweigelt
Frankovka = Blaufrankisch

Two: Draw parallels

This exercise needs more effort, as the unfamiliar terms will have to be mapped to their common versions by querying the source (in my case Aleš) or Google. Some examples are:

Rulandské = Pinot
Bílé = Blanc
Modré = Noir
Modrý = Blue
Šedé = Gris
Pozdní Sber = Late Harvest
Jakostni = Quality
Víno S Prívlastkem = Highest classification in Czech wines

Three: Get it all together

The task is to leverage familiar words within a complete name and draw conclusions. The other terms in the label would invariably relate to the specific region from where the wine originates or quality related terminology.

Rulandské Modré Rosé = Pinot Noir Rosé
Víno S Prívlastkem = Quality wine
Kabinetní Víno = Quality sub-classification

Inference: A Pinot Noir Rosé wine with the quality sub classification ‘Kabinett’

Frankovka Rosé = Blaufrankisch Rosé
Víno S Prívlastkem = Quality wine
Pozdní Sber = Late Harvest

Inference: A Blaufrankisch Rosé wine made from late harvested grapes

Modrý Portugal = Blauer Portugieser
Víno S Prívlastkem = Quality wine
Výber Z Hroznu = Quality sub classification (selected grapes)

Inference: A Blauer Portugieser wine made from special selection of grapes.

There may however be exceptions, where the above logic will not apply because the particular grape varietal is native solely to a particular country. In such cases, there is no option but to remember the varietal and take down the tasting notes for posterity.

This model that I have detailed, can be applied to understand wines from any other country having local names for international grape varietals. So next time you are confronted by an alien looking wine label, just pause to look deliberately and you may well find your new love in wines.

(This is the blog version of my similar article in vino india)