The Serbian Wines of Oskar Maurer!
Eric Danch in the House!
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Thursday 6/8 @ Elmwood
6-8 PM
$15 ($5 for Club Members)
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Get your tix here!
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Sorry to go all gooey on you up there, and/or nail a Theological Thesis on your door, but it's true: sometimes the long list of tasting notes (wet stones, chervil, clover flowers, yadda and also yadda) seems entirely to miss the point. The brain tends instead toward words like Purity. Wonder. Excitement.
Such is the case when it comes to the wines of Oszkár Maurer, who's easily one of our favorite single discoveries of the past five years. A winemaker who's not from France, Spain, Italy, California or Oregon. Or (checks notes) Germany, Austria, or Portugal. Or (struggles to remember more wine countries) Argentina, Chile, or Australia. Not Greece, Georgia, Hungary, Croatia, or Slovenia either.
No: the man who set our minds on fire – and revealed the impoverishment of our language – is a winemaker from the Subotičko–Horgoškoj region of northern Serbia. Think we're being esoteric for esoteric's sake? You are incorrect.
There are simply corners of the world that — through accidents of history — don't have Wine Councils. Whose governments don't have hundreds of thousands of EU dollars allocated to promote their vinous zipcodes in big hotel lobbies in major American metropolises. But we're here to tell you: promotional hype has nothing to do with vinous wonder.
Like the town of Šupljak, in the Subotičko–Horgoškoj region of northern Serbia: a place that's not in any Wine Atlases... despite the fact that viticulture here has been documented as far back as the 1200's! Part of Hungary for centuries, the population here remains mostly ethnic Hungarian... and the grapes, too, are from a time way before "Balkanized" was an adjective.
No: the man who set our minds on fire – and revealed the impoverishment of our language – is a winemaker from the Subotičko–Horgoškoj region of northern Serbia. Think we're being esoteric for esoteric's sake? You are incorrect.
There are simply corners of the world that — through accidents of history — don't have Wine Councils. Whose governments don't have hundreds of thousands of EU dollars allocated to promote their vinous zipcodes in big hotel lobbies in major American metropolises. But we're here to tell you: promotional hype has nothing to do with vinous wonder.
Like the town of Šupljak, in the Subotičko–Horgoškoj region of northern Serbia: a place that's not in any Wine Atlases... despite the fact that viticulture here has been documented as far back as the 1200's! Part of Hungary for centuries, the population here remains mostly ethnic Hungarian... and the grapes, too, are from a time way before "Balkanized" was an adjective.
Eric Danch, Oszkár and their root-baby
It's here that an ex-punk named Oszkár Maurer made a name for himself as the hottest-sh!# winemaker in all of Serbia. He farms a measly 7 hectares here... including the oldest known Kadarka vineyard (Hungary's most beloved red grape) in the world (!) planted in 1880.
Oszkár also has 9 hectares in the Srem region (a wine region since the Romans called it Syrmia) a little further south, in a nigh-mystical spot called 'Fruška Gora.' How much can be said about this place? Serbia's first national park has volcanic soils and is alternately called “The Holy Mountain” and the “Jewel of Serbia;” maybe a theological thesis is required to discuss these wines!
There's so much to say – and so much that's unsayable! – that you're best off not reading about the man and his wines, but attending this Thursday and tasting them! As well as talking to one of the most insatiably curious, vinously adventurous wine importers in all of America: Eric Danch.
It's here that an ex-punk named Oszkár Maurer made a name for himself as the hottest-sh!# winemaker in all of Serbia. He farms a measly 7 hectares here... including the oldest known Kadarka vineyard (Hungary's most beloved red grape) in the world (!) planted in 1880.
Oszkár also has 9 hectares in the Srem region (a wine region since the Romans called it Syrmia) a little further south, in a nigh-mystical spot called 'Fruška Gora.' How much can be said about this place? Serbia's first national park has volcanic soils and is alternately called “The Holy Mountain” and the “Jewel of Serbia;” maybe a theological thesis is required to discuss these wines!
There's so much to say – and so much that's unsayable! – that you're best off not reading about the man and his wines, but attending this Thursday and tasting them! As well as talking to one of the most insatiably curious, vinously adventurous wine importers in all of America: Eric Danch.
These are some of the rarest wines to come out of Europe, period. (Whites! Reds! Oranges! Bubbles!) Despite the fact that some of these grapes sound like your cat's sneezes? (Bakator! Mézes Fehér! Szerémi Zöld!) These are bottles that some of the most elite restaurants in western Europe and Scandinavia fight over (see here, or here)… but we've got them locked down!
Come at 6:00 to get your first glass... but be here by 6:15 sharp to catch the discussion with Eric: while this won't be a staid seminar, we will be going in order; these wines are just too special not to pay attention to them!
Come at 6:00 to get your first glass... but be here by 6:15 sharp to catch the discussion with Eric: while this won't be a staid seminar, we will be going in order; these wines are just too special not to pay attention to them!
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The Serbian Wines of Oskar Maurer!
Eric Danch in the House!
.
Thursday 6/8 @ Elmwood
6-8 PM
$15 ($5 for Club Members)
.
Get your tix here!