This is the 5th installment of VINEgeek’s Oddball Wine of the Week. Click here for links to each wine in the series.
Quattro Mani [toh-kai] 2007
Producer: Well, the brand is Quattro Mani, which is a label from Domaine Select Wine Estates, an importer. But the wine is made by Ales Kristancic of Movia.
Grapes: 100% Tocai
Appellation: Goriska Brda (DOC, Slovenia). While your first thought (and mine) might have been that Slovenia sounds like a wine backwoods, recall that it shares a border with Italy and the Goriska Brda region is on that border. In fact, this region is virtually an extension of Italy’s Collio DOC.
Vineyard: Exto Gredic. Soils are “Flysch of Collio, with marl and sandstone layers”. Average vine age is 18 years.
Winemaking: no oak
Alcohol: 12.5%
Price: I paid $9 at Costco in Austin.
My tasting notes: Very rich yellow color, leaning toward orange. Serious spearmint and menthol on the nose overshadowing some basic appley fruit. It’s goes for the odd trifecta (color, nose and palate) with jarring nutty, salty, medicinal notes on top of ripe melon flavors. The wine has an oily texture and the finish is medicinal and seems hot (though it’s only 12.5%), almost like Listerine.
Overall impression: This is one of those bottles that is just so different from what I typically drink that I don’t know how to judge it. I can’t say I really enjoy the flavor profile. But for $9, it was worth it to me just to experience something out of the ordinary. I doubt you’ll make it your house white, but if you’re looking for something unusual, give it a go. C
Free association: Believe it or not, there does not appear to be a single photo of a stick of Wrigley’s Spearmint gum stuck up someone’s nose anywhere on the Internet. WTF, people? Can someone get on that? Instead you get this lazy association…
More info:
Big pub scores: Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate – 91 pts, Wine & Spirits – 87 pts and Wine Spectator – 86 pts. (The links are to the importer’s site where they’ve collected the reviews. You ought to click through to the Parker review – it’s pretty over the top. At the end you’re thinking “Only 91 pts? Sounds like a 98-pointer or something.”
More tasting notes at CellarTracker (user Chomsky nails my experience with this wine) and Cork’d.
5 Top Slovenian Wines by Ales Kristancic in Food & Wine.
Here’s an interesting piece from the WSJ.com Food & Drink section on the emerging wine cred of Croatia, Slovenia and other Eastern European countries: The Lure of the Unpronounceable
Producer: CAP Vistalba
I finally made it back to Costco to pick up a few more bottles of the 
Angeline is an interesting 2nd label from the Martin Ray Winery. The bottles/labels are attractive. The wines are well-priced. They come from more specific and respected appellations (Russian River Valley, Alexander Valley, Sonoma) than many wines in the same price range, which are often just California or Central Coast. Let’s check out the Sauvignon Blanc.
This one is exciting! It was a quick grab from the Costco shelf. I’d never heard of it, but was in the mood for some Rhone action. Little did I know that lurking behind this boring label would be one of the tastiest little wines I’ve had in months.
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Chapillon Cuvée Harmonie 2006
This bottle was recommended to me as “If you like Vinho Verde, you’ll like this.” By which the recommender meant a light crisp white with a little natural effervescence and low alcohol. That style of wine isn’t exactly the stuff of contemplation, but it can be just right sometimes. Let’s check this one out…
I can’t really find anything about this wine online (and the label is no help either), so I won’t be doing a full post on this one. It’s a very young cab from South Africa — that’s all I know.