Macedonia Trip January 2014
Posted on Mon 13th Jan 2014 at 13:57
Signature Wines is getting off to a flying start this New Year with Stobi’s first trip to the UK. It was only a few hours later that I was booking my own flight out to join them, minus my sunglasses. I was wrapped up for snow and cold temperatures as my car indicated a cool 10 degrees, but this was an illusion as it felt like a mildly hot UK summer day, with a gentle breeze, no clouds and blue skies with a bright blazing sun. For me, it was good to be back in Macedonia as it’s starting to feel like my second home.
Signature Wines is getting off to a flying start this New Year with Stobi’s first trip to the UK. It was only a few hours later that I was booking my own flight out to join them, minus my sunglasses. I was wrapped up for snow and cold temperatures as my car indicated a cool 10 degrees, but this was an illusion as it felt like a mildly hot UK summer day, with a gentle breeze, no clouds and blue skies with a bright blazing sun. For me, it was good to be back in Macedonia as it’s starting to feel like my second home. I couldn’t wait to meet the full team again and was very excited. 2 days prior, our new edition to the team Master of Wine, Jo Ahearne, had flown out to meet Stobi Winery to get an insight into the Stobi operation. Jo’s brief was simple, meet the wine makers, taste the new vintages and hopefully give the green light on new lines. The journey from the airport to the winery is all of 45mins, which felt like it was over in a blink of an eye because the picturesque views are just spectacular.
Macedonia is quite simply marvellous in the winter as well as the summer. The drive through the mountain regions is beautiful with its back drop of small settlements ,tiny houses, rivers, flora bedded into nooks and crannies, and an ancient fort which has defended its borders many moons ago, the Stobi winery is just as impressive surrounded by thousands of hectares under vine, looking bare without their grapes at this time of the year! I arrived well into the afternoon. The team of wine makers, which included MD, Dane Jovanov, his father George Jovanov, plus other senior winemakers and Jo, were tucked into their tasting of all the reds. As I entered the restaurant, I walked into the loud roar of “wow that’s great!” Apparently, the Merlot Barrique was showing particularly well and I immediately said “we’ll take it” only to be informed other markets had secured all the stock, so I said “save it for Signature” for next year.
From the homeland, their classy variety, Vranec, remained deep, dark, and delicious. The 2012 was showing promise we will be introducing this as well as the Petit Verdot 2012 vintage later this year. The Syrah 2011 remains in good quality form, and there is plenty for the UK, taking into account the heavy rain during the 2012 harvest. My first day ended with a delicious meal at the Stobi winery luxury 5 star restaurant and a mini tour of the capital before we headed back to the hotel. Unfortunately, I didn’t take many pictures as the rain had decided to bless us and we couldn’t find anywhere to buy an umbrella. [nggallery id=17] Day 2 was up and out early, following a quick debrief over breakfast on Jo’s experiences over the first few days before another full day of tasting was under way, accompanied by Nikola Derebanov, Stobi’s director, Dane, George, (or Georgie as Jo would call him) and Andon, a senior wine maker. Both fluent in French Jo and Georgie, were able to communicate very well, whilst everyone else was speaking a good mix of English or native Macedonian… and my very few words. This time a long list of 2013 whites and rosés were on the menu and luckily I wasn’t paying! Unfortunately the Pinot Noir also suffered from some rain so the famous rosé was not made this year but with umbrellas up and fingers crossed it will be seen back in the UK in 2015.
The good news is, we're excited about the fresh vintage of the lovely Stobi Cuvee, and the new Muscat Ottonel has a wonderful floral aroma. Jo loved the Arcacia oak flavours so we've added some of these barrels to the new Chardonnay mix. She then fell in love with the local variety Žilavka so we now have a little sister for the Vranec. After another full day of tasting and blending, daylight quickly turned into night time and laughter brought the day to a full close. The team had bonded really well. Stobi showed an increased willingness to learn more about our market and how best they can serve its consumers, whilst the Stobi team openly shared their passion, techniques and stories with the Signature team. With a very early flight on Friday morning, we had run out of time to take Jo sightseeing around the local ancient city of Stobi, but before we headed back to the hotel for an early night. Dane, Nikola, Stobi’s Commercial Director, Lidija, and Jadranka, Stobi’s export Manager, very kindly treated us to a new restaurant which had recently opened up in town, and shared a fun evening of more wine tasting and market research into the other wines that Macedonia has to offer. [nggallery id=18] Click here to read about Day 1 of Signature Wine’s trip Macedonia.
You can also read more about Stobi’s visit to the UK here: Day 1 and Day 2.