Wine Crawling in the Tikvesh Region

Ema Stavrikj
Nov 7 · 5 min read

What is the first thing that pops into your mind when you look at the wine list at a restaurant? Do you feel a certain urge to ask the sommelier for what’s trending, or do you prefer to select a wine based on your previous wine tasting experience?

Wine tasting is much more than just triggering the taste buds, a good wine also touches the mind and the heart if chosen correctly!

The pure beauty of wine tasting is acting like a professional by making the simple “swirl, sniff and sip” technique, that makes any given wine to stand out, with its recognized taste and unique character. The essential elements of every wine’s identity are distinctive, the numerous vibrant notes make your body quench and struggle to absorb the sensations felt in different receptors as the taste opens the mind, and allows the body to follow. It is a truly rejuvenating experience for all the senses!

It is fascinating how blending multiple sorts of grapes, grown in particular sites, creates extraordinary tastes of wine, which is why wines are considered as expressions of culture.

Oftentimes, wine plays an important role in people’s lives. One doesn’t have to be a wine expert to have reasonable obsession with wine. The pure delight that comes with finding a great wine for the right occasion is more related with the food than with the season. Actually, one doesn’t have to have a favorite season to engage in wine tasting. Mostly, the various moods and customs presented in all four distinct seasons somehow dictate the wines we select.

In a way, roses and whites are ordinarily associated with spring and summer, and the powerful dark red wines are left for the cold, winter months. However, we have to bear in mind that it is actually the food that dictates the wine, and not the weather outside. Different sorts of wine can trigger different kinds of emotions, associating the wine with the moment, making for a more memorable experience.

Spring is my favorite time of the year, and this year I reserved it for a wine-crawling adventure. Springtime is actually a transitional season for wines, changing from the heavy wines we usually associate with winter to the light, easy wines we prefer in the summer. If you ask sommeliers, it is actually the weight and not the color of the wine that plays a crucial role in selecting bottles.

Nonetheless, spring wines usually have a sweet, easy taste that doesn’t come too strong on the senses, but gradually flows through the body causing tingling sensations. When selecting a wine in spring we often prefer light fragrant wines based on flowers and fruits that are easy to digest during the day, while leaving the wines with a cooler edge and spicy, potent flavor for a night to remember.

Even though, much attention is put on the rare bottles of wine that fire our imagination, there are still sorts of wines that can be consumed at any given time, and with any given meal. If we think about it, it is actually the bottles that we open every day for a simple dinner that are the most important wines in our lives. They somehow hold the same value as the art we have in our homes which grows to be more meaningful to us than the one we might see on occasional visits to art galleries or museums. Rare bottled masterpieces may stretch the mind and provoke numerous emotions based on the set benchmarks that stretch our mindset, but it is the simpler pleasures of everyday wines that shape our desires, pique the curiosity and define its role in our lives.

More attention should be put on everyday wines that are moderately priced and easy to drink in relaxing and casual settings, which are still interesting enough to inspire joy and to be deeply pleasurable. The wines that we drink all year round should have refreshing qualities, be well-structured, and balanced to not give us headaches the next morning.

It is time to topple wine off its pedestal and realize this pleasurable beverage should not be saved only for special occasions. It does not require special tools to enjoy or unusual powers to smell or taste to distinguish its quality. At the end of the day, wine is just a matter of personal taste and not a judgment of one’s personality or character.

The big question is how to select wine from all those different sorts, origins and styles, featuring various grapes and flavors? Diversity seems to have made it more difficult to find and select a good, interesting bottle. In order to avoid the struggle, many people settle for familiar grapes, known brand names and places of origin.

When we think about selecting a wine, we should not think about what’s at the top of the universal scale of greatness, because everything depends on the occasion. Finding a good wine shop increases the odds of finding good bottles, the hard part is choosing from the great selection!

Instead, recognize the value of wine made from fine grapes, even if it comes from unknown areas. Don’t just think of great wines based on its age, profundity and complexity. These attributes define wine at its highest level. There are many decent bottles of wine accessible for everyday drinking that are interesting enough to capture our attention at a good price.

On a quest to find the best wines of Macedonia, I headed off to a wine crawling adventure on the Tikvesh wine route. Tikvesh valley is a wine-growing district in South Macedonia, known as the traditional wine-making region since antique times, pioneer in producing some of the best wines in South East Europe.

The region is best known for its old-timer table wines among certain wine geeks. Mature grapes are harvested in late autumn to produce various elegant wines. Some with delicious tropical flavors, others packed with balanced sweetness, or even sustained by fresh grapes on the finish.

The light, straightforward and graceful taste of the favorite wine I tasted on this trip is deeply refreshing and earthy, with the acidic note among the flavors that triggers all the senses. Its majestic taste opens windows to a golden, lingering flavor of paradise, making it the lip-smacking goddess of white wine. The perfect lightness and balance makes it a real companion of thirst and pleasure.

In spite of its delicious taste, this wine offers certain depth and complexity, it is rich, but not heavy and yet textured. The fruit aroma combined with intense acidic flavor gives an earthy taste that goes perfectly with any food. The identity of this mysterious wine will be disclosed in some of my next articles.

Stay tuned, and drink responsibly :)

Ema Stavrikj

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Copywriter|Digital Marketer|Social Media Specialist| https://www.linkedin.com/in/ema-stavrikj/ https://www.upwork.com/freelancers/~0126c8cf96242f2331

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