To my US friends

Dear readers in the USA, I’m thrilled and amazed that so many of you are following my blog and that you find my life interesting to read about, I would love to hear from you all and to receive some feedback of what you want me to write about and for me to know you out there.

Please send me an e-mail on dragan@unictaste.se I would appreciate that tremendously

I’m raising my glass to you all

Dragan

South Africa and great wines

The winemakers in South Africa are making some absolutely great wines that in many cases are on top in the world of wines.

The problem is that the importers are focusing on bland wines without personality and identity just focusing on the lower prise range, at least here in Sweden.

People in Sweden love the S-A wines and prefer this in many cases when they are buying in systembolaget shops (monopoly crap) and this is what they thing S-A wines are all about.

The problems appear when you talk to restaurants and ask why they do not carry more of the S-A wines on the list, people are not paying for the wines in restaurants due to that they are used to lower quality wines of lower level wines, this are creating a problem in the long run when you talk about the high end wines that are just amazingly good with great value for the buck.

Here are some of my favourite that I tasted recently and I do love them all and wish some more importers will put focus on this high end wines.

South African Pinots are sexy

Can wine be sexy? This is a very interesting question due to that Pinot Noirs use to be called a female wine in the old days when most of the pinots came from burgundy.

Now days when this exiting grape are grown all around the globe with different characters and result my answer is YES, these wines are a sexy, velvety curvy woman in high heels with a bite to it, and I do love most of them J

I just tasted some of the best South African Pinots and I must admit that this style suits me perfectly with broad and bold flavours and the pure identity of the grape, here are my best picks of the tasting.

Bouchard Finlayson Galpin Peak PN

Chamonix Pinot Noir reserve
Paul Cluver PN
Creation PN
Hamilton Russell PN
Vriesenhof PN
Newton Johnson Family Vineyard PN
Catherine Marshall eleven barrel reserve PN and my favourite wine of the day

Prowein day two with great people

The second day at the wine fair was just amazing and I’m really happy to announce that I signed some great producers to Scandinavia and that I have chosen the first four wines that will have the “Special sommelier selection by Dragan Unic” on the bottle.

The new wines that will future in the range of wines on the list are the  boldly and gutsy and delicious wines from Pago De Vallegarcía outside Toledo in Spain and are considered to be among the top 30 vineries from Spain, you are in for a big surprise, check it out here http://www.vallegarcia.com

I can tell you that the best sweet wines are made by Mr Savic at the house of Bodrem in Croatia, this guy are making nine different sweet wines of the best quality that I have ever tasted and all are grape individual and all of them taste differently, no wonder that Decanter are giving him the highest scores for the last four years, check it out here http://www.bodren.hr

Florentina Casao Ariano is the forth generation in a winemaking family descendant from Italy many years ago and are now making some very special and exceptional wines in Uruguay from many different grape varieties but focusing on the Tannat grape of highest possible quality, the wine people will be surprised again J and you can read more here http://www.arianohermanos.com

California wines will come from three small producers of great quality but I have not finalized the range yet, will do this in the next few weeks and I’m truly looking forward to this extravaganza tasting again.

Catherine Marshall is making some fantastic wines in South Africa and will be the new partner in Sweden and Denmark with her range of silky, sexy and delicious wines. I will introduce her to you later but you can read more about her here in the meantime  http://www.cmwines.co.za

I will sign another Croatian young and talented winemaker but he does not know it yet J the quality that he gets out of his fruit is mind blowing and you will love him and enjoy his company, more to come.

That’s it for now with some pictures.