Every Sunday, with an educational edge, I explore specific appellations or sub-regions, taking you along for the ride. If it’s old news, then brush up on some fading facts; if it’s uncharted territory, why not learn something new? If you know something I haven’t mentioned, then feel free to comment and share your experiences. Check out past Sunday posts here.

This weekend’s post is inspired from the opportunity Kurtis and I had to try all things Slovakian at the Slovak Olympic house, including wine and beer you can’t normally find around Vancouver. It began with disappointment, as we sprung the pricey entrance fee, set on sampling the list of nine wines, but found them to be pouring only three. When Kurtis plead our case to the organizer, we were invited to return and promised more wine. The next day there were still only three wines, but we did gorge on back-to-back buffet lunches of traditional Slovakian food. I’ve now filled my Goulash quota for the year.

The band, whose members don’t seem to appreciate being photographed.

Slovakia is landlocked in Central Europe with Austria and the Czech Republic to the west, Poland to the North, Ukraine to the east and Hungary below to the south. This is generally a chilly place to grow grapes and the majority of the country’s six wine regions (Small Carpathian, Nitrian, South Slovakian, Middle Slovakian, East Slovakian, and Tokaj, a portion of the same region from Hungary) hug the southern border. They have ancient wine making history and recently there’s more of a move than ever towards both making and appreciating high quality wine.

Map from Wikipedia

There are over forty varietals grown in Slovakia, with popular ones being Rizling Vlašský (Welschriesling), Rizling Rýnský (Riesling), Veltlínské Zelené (Grüner Veltliner), Müller-Thurgau, Rulandské Biele (Pinot Blanc), Chardonnay, Tramín Červený (Gewürztraminer) for the whites and Frankovka Modrá (Blaufränkisch), Modrý Portugal (the Blauer Portugieser grape of Austria and Germany), Svatovavřinecké (St Laurent), and Cabernet Sauvignon for the reds. Along with making wine from over 15,000 hectares (40,000 acres) of their own vines, the Slovaks also import a sizable amount of grapes and juice to keep production up with demand.

Kurtis patiently waiting for more Modrý Portugal.

The three wines the Slovaks were pouring were all from Víno Mrva & Stanko, a winery created by friends Peter Stanko and Vladimír Mrva in 1997. They source grapes from various regions to bottle between 15 and 20 varietal specific wines and 30,000 cases each year.

Mrva & Stanko ’07 Modrý Portugal
Soft cherry and strawberry fruit with a bit of spice. An easy light-medium body sipper without too much oak. This was my favourite wine of the three and was quite Pinot Noir or Blaufränkisch-like in it’s weight, texture and flavours (this either shows how little my experience is with Austrian grape is or how versatile it can be, as the next wine turned out to actually be made from Blaufränkisch).

Mrva & Stanko ’08 Frankovka Modrá
The real Blaufränkisch had lots of fleshy purple fruit, but it also had that strange exotic woody spice that I associate with bad wines from Eastern Europe – balsam or cedar wood with a green ferny character. Not my favourite.

Mrva & Stanko ’08 Cabernet Sauvignon
Some of that dark purple Cab fruit, but overall a fairly blah and meek wine.

This jovial photo was obviously taken before the quarter final hockey match up between Slovakia and Canada.

There doesn’t seem to be bountiful information available on Slovakia’s wine scene and the wine itself is  pretty scarce in North America. I’d love to get a chance to taste through a good cross section of the country’s wines before making any judgment, but I’m sure I’d need to actually visit Slovakia for this to happen.

As always, please feel free to contribute any information, experience or tasting notes that you feel are relevant and check back next Sunday. Read past Sunday posts here.