The Pulse of Vinodonia 2024 / part one/ Terroir.mk

Wine masterclasses & workshops as part of Skopje Wine Salon - Vinodonia 2024

PhD Klime Beleski - Riesling Masterclass | Terroir.mk ©

In the lower deck of the wine "cruiser" Vinodonia, seven workshops were held in two days. We managed to visit six of them and give at least a little importance to this part of the event because we consider that  should be the main drive of this wine event. 
This time, we will not look at how to behave at wine workshops, what they are for, what are the usual protocols, and what are the crucial information that, according to the unwritten rules, should not be bypassed.  However, the workshops were professionally led by the lecturers and organizers. Attendance was solid, although interest in paying tickets for this type of workshop (tasting) is still at a very low level. Therefore we would like to point out that organizing such workshops is very logistically and financially demanding for both, organizer and presenters.  

The workshops started with sparkling wines, where the sommelier and organizer of Vinodonia, Aleksandar Vuckovski, gave a broad picture of the world styles of sparkling wines.

Aleksandar Vuckovski - Sparkling Wines | Terroir.mk ©

Terroir.mk ©

“We'll just scratch the surface of the sparkling wines because it's mission impossible to go deeper in only an hour,” he said. 
However, the visitors had the opportunity, in addition to basic information, to taste some rarer styles of sparkling wine, such as Franciacorta and sparkling rose made from the Macedonian Stanusina grape variety from the Kuvin winery, as well pet-nat from local grape variety Smederveka by Peskov winery, which we recently wrote about (more).

Prof. Klime Beleski - Riesling Masterclass | Terroir.mk ©

After the sparkling wines, the first day continued  with a masterclass on the Riesling grape variety. The lecturer was the respected prof. Klime Beleski, who introduced the attendees to the characteristics of this variety and the official classification of wines in Germany, after which there was a wine tasting, where mostly German wines of the Kabinet class were offered, which were selflessly selected from the archive by sommelier Aleksandar Vuckovski. 

In addition to German Rieslings, the gusests could taste some wines from Alsace [F], Wachau [A], Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia as well as local Riesling from the Iliev winery.

Two vintages from the Ilijev winery were offered for tasting, 2022 and 2023. The development of Riesling in the bottle was evident, and the majority of those present were on the side of Riesling from 2022. Unfortunately, the winery is out of stock from that vintage they brought it specially for this masterclass from their archive. The difference between the two vintages could also be seen through this very short vertical. The potential of 2023 is solid, it remains to be seen the further development of their Riesling.

Iliev Winery ©

The first day of the wine workshops ended with the presentation of the wines of a very famous producer from the northern Rhône, Paul Jaboulet Aîné. A relatively new wine bar in Skopje, Grand Cru, offered these wines that attracted a lot of attention. Along with an excellent presentation by sommelier Aleksandar Milivojevic, who is primarily responsible for Grand Cru, six wines from this esteemed producer were presented from different sub-regions of the northern Rhône.​

Workshop Paul Jaboulet Aîné | Terroir.mk ©

Terroir.mk ©

​Wine connoisseurs of the northern Rhone could very easily recognize the varietal profile of the wines as well as the expression of the subregions, which indicated the well-deserved qualitative recognition of the producer.

While the famous Hermitage from 2015 (Le Maison Beue) shone in the workshop, our hearts were won by the younger vintages of Cornas 2020 and the excellent Côte-Rôtie 2021.

It was a memorable finale of the first day of the wine workshops at Vinodonia 2024.

PART TWO