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Eastern province: vineyards and mountains near Smartno in the Goriska Brda wine region of Slovenia.
Eastern province: vineyards and mountains near Smartno in the Goriska Brda wine region of Slovenia. Photograph: Robert Harding/Alamy
Eastern province: vineyards and mountains near Smartno in the Goriska Brda wine region of Slovenia. Photograph: Robert Harding/Alamy

Meadow-fresh whites from eastern and central Europe

This article is more than 4 years old

For inventive and unusual wines full of flavour head to the Czech Republic, Croatia and Slovenia

Sonberk Pálava, Moravia, Czech Republic 2017 (£22.80, Hedonism) Central and Eastern Europe is a hot bed of vinous reinvention at the moment. Countries that we in the UK have tended to disregard as wine producers, are now making bottles that are every bit as good as their counterparts in the west. Until recently, for example, most of us would have associated the Czech Republic and Slovakia with bitter medicinal digestifs and top-notch lager. But the two countries have always made wine, and these are regaining the reputation they had a century or more ago. From Slovakia, the best I’ve tried recently is a riesling made by the great German winemaker Egon Müller at his brother-in-law’s estate: Château Bela Riesling Dry 2017 (from £22.99, Novel Wines; Selfridges) is fine-boned, super-fresh and elegant. From the Czech Republic, I really fell for the local pálava grape as grown by Sonberk in the brightly lit cool-climate of Moravia with its succulent tropical fruit and fresh herbiness.

Jako Vino Stina Posip, Dalmatia, Croatia 2017 (from £23.99, All About Wine; Strictly Wine; Corking Wines) Croatia is blessed with a profusion of grape varieties in its island and mainland wine regions. Perhaps the most celebrated combination of grape and place in the country is the malvasia of the Istrian peninsula, which leads to brisk, pithy, sea-salty fresh but brightly fruited dry whites such as Kozlovic Malvasia, Istria 2018 (from £12.29, Strictly Wine; Fintry Wines). On the Peljesac peninsula of the Dalmatian coast, meanwhile, it’s the red grape plavac mali that is the stand out in sweetly dark fruited reds such as Badel Plavac Mali 2017 (£10.83, Croatian Fine Wines). And on the island of Brac, wine producers such as Jako Andabak of Jako Vino have been rebuilding and replanting vineyards on the white stone (“stina”) soils with very impressive results, not least in the gorgeous wine Andabak makes from the posip variety, a wine that ripples with stone fruited richness, citrussy pith and cool sea breeziness.

Gasper Pinot Grigio, Goriska Brda, Slovenia 2018 (from £12.67, The Fine Wine Company; Noel Young Wines) Croatia’s rival as currently the most interesting wine producer of the former Yugoslavian states is Slovenia. The country has a nice line in pristine, fruit-driven whites such as the consistently good Puklavec & Friends Sauvignon Blanc-Pinot Grigio 2018 (£8.75, Waitrose) from the northeastern Stajerska region, which brings such attractive freshly mowed meadow refreshment in this vintage. Even better in the same kind of modern, clean style is Gasper’s Pinot Grigio from the Goriska Brda region on the border with northeast Italy, which presents the grape variety at its palate-coating, subtly spicy, quince-fruity best, with a lovely streak of citrussy freshness. But the country is also the home of some of Europe’s best natural and orange wines, not least the brilliant wines of the Zorjan family in Stajerska, whose macerated combination of riesling and (unrelated) lazki riesling, Zorjan Cuvée 2015 (£27.50, Les Caves) is a spicy, herbal, tangy, inimitable.

Follow David on Twitter @Daveydaibach

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