Stobi Triumphs Over Adversity During a Challenging 2014 Vintage
Posted on Fri 11th Jul 2014 at 15:32
All Macedonian winemakers faced a challenging vintage during 2014, in fact it will be marked in the Macedonian wine annals as one of the “hardest” experienced in the Eastern Mediterranean region to date.
An unprecedented amount of rainfall occurred during the sprouting and flowering season with the biggest part of the vegetation being affected causing a 40-50% drop in yield reduction. The warmer weather did follow but relatively late in the season, but soon enough to prevent mildew developing; this alongside the careful attention given by the experienced Stobi winemakers meant that serious crop damage was avoided. Despite there being an overall smaller yield, the start of the harvest produced very good fruit for the Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Muscat Ottonel, especially for the early whites. The rain that came later; during the month of September, mostly affecting the maturing of the red wines and so the winery worked hard to protect the grapes with a decision to produce a lower alcohol content which suits the UK market well. These unusual adverse weather conditions could have been a disaster for any winery but the the knowledge and the experience of the Stobi winemakers-oenologists especially Gjoko Jovanov (over 40 vintages) has contributed to gain the expected quality of the wines that Stobi is renounced for. The Stobi winery literally made it through the storm, and the impact was mitigated. Even though the situation was very difficult, the winery is delighted to have overcome the difficulties to produce wines with great concentration of aromas for the white wines, great freshness for all wines, smaller doses of fining agents (lower protein content in wines), good rose wines.