Foto: Martin Siebert

Let’s set off for a short “trip around the world of wine” to nearby countries that have conditions suitable for growing grapes and making wine.

The choice of cultivars in German-speaking countries is rather similar to ours. In Germany, the leader is clearly Riesling, dominating at some 20 percent of vineyards. Riesling is a white grape variety that originates in the Rhine region of Germany. It is used to make dry, semi-sweet, sweet and sparkling white wines.

Of the “blue” (modrý) sorts there is Spätburgunder, otherwise known as pinot noir, a type more closely associated with France. The French name, roughly meaning “black pine” refers to the tight clusters of dark purple pine cone-shaped clusters of grapes.

German wines are as varied as natural conditions for vine-growing in various parts of the country. Beside the basic cultivars we can meet also less-known, but not insignificant strains in German vine-growing areas. For instance the Bacchus white wine grape, which is also grown in England. It has a body similar to Riesling and aroma of sylvaner, and is playful like Müller Thurgau. There is also the piquant Scheurebe (Sämling 88), and on occasion one encounters Schwarzriesling, also called pinot meunier, a relative of pinot noir that can be used in making sparkling wine. As blue vines are concerned, there is Dornfelder, becoming rather popular lately. It is a dark-skinned variety of grape of German origin, created in 1955, used for red wine. Part of its popularity comes from the grape performing well in conditions usually suited for white wines.

Vintners in Austria work mostly with Grüner Weltliner (also called veltliner), Blaufrankish (Frankovka) and Zweigelt (Zweigeltrebe), which are all well-known to Czech wine makers and consumers.

Beside these, there is also the less-common grape variety Blauburger, which is used mostly for blending, as it gives wine an intense color but does not have much bouquet.

In the Austrian state of Styria, a regional specialty is Blauer Wildbacher, a dark-skinned grape variety that some people say traces its origins back to the era of the Celts. The name, at least, goes back as far as the 16th century. The grape is used to make Schilcher, a type of rosé. It is also used for sparkling wine.

Switzerland is proud of its chasselas and Gamay varietals. The former makes a full, dry and fruity white wine and it allegedly traces its origins from Egypt some 5,000 years ago. The latter, which takes its name from a French town, is a purple-colored grape variety used to make red wines, and is popular also in the Beaujolais area and in the Loire Valley in France. There is also an interesting blue cultivar called gamaret, which is a cross breed from the Gamay. It is often used in blends.

Wines east of Břeclav

When we turn to the east, at vineyards in Slovakia we can see specialties like dievčie hrozno (girls’ grapes) and Frankovka. There are also numerous newly bred cultivars, for example, Devín, dora, breslava and rhea. Crossbreeding of the sauvignon super, still in progress, is said to be most promising too.

Hungary, which is slowly coming back to its former position in wine breeding and production, is beginning to build on international cultivars of French origin. Besides this, there is still the rather undervalued potential—aside from tokays—of better domesticated strains, well-known for a long time under their Hungarian names, like furmint, kadarka (gamza), leányka, szürkebarat  (pinot gris) and lipovina, which are the basic entries to Tokaji Aszú, the jewel of Hungarian cellars.

Ukraine, once a wine-growing power, is also trying to bring back its former success after a long period of meager years. Aside from well-known international cultivars, Ukraine also has some traditional strains like the white-wine grape rkatsiteli and red-wine grape saperavi. Rkatsiteli originates in Georgia, where seeds dating back 3,000 years have been found. Before 1991, the grape accounted for 18 percent of Soviet wine production. Saperavi is able to handle cold weather and can produce wines with high alcohol levels that take a long time to age. The alibernet grape, a red wine cultivar developed in Ukraine, is now also grown in Moravia.

Moldova has also lost a part of its former wine-growing glitter. Investments have not seemed to bring expected results, but they brought new cultivars to Moldova’s vineyards. Beside the newcomers, there are strains grown for centuries in the country, mainly feteasca, which is similar to Hungary’s leanyka and saperavi. 

The situation in Romania is slightly better, and financial injections have begun to work, mainly in the field of imported vines of French origin. But feteasca—in three variations: regala, alba or neagră—and băbească neagră are the names of cultivars that have been at home in Romania for ages and which still make an impact on the range of Romanian wines.

The Bulgarian wine-growing sector is developing along a similar line and its start was even better. Imported cultivars provide decent wines and have nearly pushed the original local strains out of memory. Nevertheless, crude gamza, the muscatel variety misket and red wine grapes shiroka Melnishka losa and mavrud do not give up easily, and wines made of these cultivars are fighting valiantly for their existence.

The cradle of wine-making science

Greece is the country that is said to be the place where the foundations of cultivated wine growing were laid. Although even here international cultivars are pushing themselves into vineyards, thanks to efforts to keep the choice and selection as large as possible, we can still find local strains of ancient origin. There are three hundred of them. Probably the most popular ones are savatiano and Rhoditis, from which the notorious and somewhat controversial pine-flavored retsina is made. Athiri, amorgiano, agiorgitiko, limnio, debina and mavrodafni are representatives of Greek vines; in this case those grown on islands. On the mainland we can find among others xynomavro, krassato, batiki, athiri, naoussa, savatiana and agiorgitiko. We could name many others, but these are more than enough to give us an idea about the elements out of which a base of future cultivars may arise.  

Albania and Macedonia are not among the winemaking giants, although grapes have been grown there since antiquity. Even now interesting cultivars can be found in these countries. In Albania they are white vines of shesh and bardhe and perhaps the red kallmet.

Macedonia is a little more active in this respect; its choice of local strains is larger and perhaps better known too. Vranac, kratošija, prokupac and Plovdina are cultivars on which the Macedonian wine-growing industry is based.

Into the Western Balkans …

As far as countries of former Yugoslavia are concerned, we should mention those with strong, interesting wine production. Montenegro has also been importing established cultivars, but the banner of local production is still held high by white variety krstač and blue vranac.

Croatia is much better-known to consumers. Imported cultivars flourish here, but the local ones are largely preferred. Plavac mali crni, teran, blatina, and vranac are the basic strains, followed by žlahtina, vugava and pošip.

Slovenia is probably even more dedicated to vine imports. Local varieties include sipon and refosca, but French and Italian strains are pushing in vehemently. We should not forget about kraljevina, rebula and pinela.

... and the mysterious island of Templars

We will finish our trip at Cyprus. White xynisteri and blue mavro are the cultivars giving life to the legendary “crusaders’” dessert wine called Commandaria. From Cypriot cultivars we should mention also opthalmo, muscat of Alexandria and maratheftiko. The fact that original sorts keep enlarging their ratio in Cypriot wine production is rather sympathetic.