foodwineclick

Under the Radar in Europe with Wine Pairing Weekend
This month, our Wine Pairing Weekend group is exploring under-the-radar wine regions in Europe. Wines from classic regions like France and Italy are well understood by many wine drinkers, but Georgia? Romania? Moldova? Take a look further down in this post to a whole list of links to my fellow bloggers and their discoveries of the lesser known. I’ve heard of wines from Croatia, but I’ve not tasted many and never had a wine from the Teran grape, so this event gave me the opportunity to remedy that situation!

Croatia Wines, the Teran Grape and Franc Arman
Croatia has quite a complicated modern history. They were part of Yugoslavia during World War II, then a war of independence, and most recently, joining the European Union in 2013. Croatia is less known to those of us in the US, but it has a well developed wine and tourist culture and is long popular among Europeans. If a summer seaside vacation sounds good to you (coming soon!), have a look at the Wine and Wineries pages within the Visit Croatia website.
Grape growing and winemaking is well established in Croatia. To their credit, they have preserved and support their local indigenous grapes, including many that are new to me, including today’s Teran grape. Teran, aka Terrano, is an ancient grape from the region including northeastern Italy, southwestern Slovenia, and the Istrian peninsula of Croatia. Apparently, there is some legal wrangling regarding the name between Slovenia and Croatia. So much intrigue here! Anyway, Teran is a warmth loving black grape which produces lively fruit and firm tannins.

Disclosure: The wine for this post was provided as a sample. No other compensation was involved and all opinions expressed are mine.

Franc Arman
The Arman Family has been growing grapes and making wine in Istria since 1850, and Teran has been part of their plantings since the beginning. They make a variety of wines from both local and international varieties. They harvest grapes by hand and make their wines in a modern winery with underground cellars. When you go on that Croatian vacation, you can visit!

Franc Arman Teran Istarski 2013 (sample, $26 SRP, online here) 13% abv
Eye: Medium ruby
Nose: Medium plus intensity aromas of violets, fresh and ripe blueberries, blackberries, black plums, slightly herbal – rosemary, subtle pencil lead and smoke.
Mouth: Dry, medium plus acidity, medium plus fine-grained tannins, medium body, medium alcohol, medium plus intensity flavors and a medium plus finish. Flavors of fresh ripe blueberries and blackberries, rosemary, plus cherries lingering in the finish.
Conclusions: Very good quality wine with good combination of fruit and non-fruit flavors, solid structure but still light on its feet with medium body. Definitely worth seeking out!

Tri-Tip Steak with Teran Red Wine
When trying a new red wine, I almost always default to some kind of steak, and with our coming spring weather, I could have fun cooking the whole meal on the grill. The salsa verde added just the right fresh kick of flavor to make us look forward to Minnesota greening up! The salsa verde recipe comes from our friends Mary and Sean‘s book Fire and Wine. Highly recommended for upping your grilling game! If you decide you want to really up your grilling game, I love my Primo Ceramic grill. Note – I don’t do affiliate links, I’m just a fan of these products.

Wine Pairing Weekend Under-the-Radar Discoveries
Are you looking for something new in wine? Take a look at all the great ideas below for a new and different bottle of wine, plus suggestions for food pairing! While you’re at it, why not join our monthly chat on Twitter? Our Under-the-Radar chat will convene on Saturday April 10 at 10-11:00 am Central Daylight Time. Just look for us at the #WinePW hashtag on Twitter!

• Camilla from Culinary Adventures with Camilla posts From the Same Latitude as Other Pinot Noir Powerhouses: The 2017 Macedon Pinot Noir Matches Two Meaty Dinners.
• Jeff at Food, Wine, Click! focuses on Under the Radar in Croatia with Franc Arman Teran.
• Gwendolyn from Wine Predator tries 3 Wines from Sicily’s Etna Volcano Paired with Pork Sugo.
• Kat from The Corkscrew Concierge takes us Beyond Wine – Kosovo’s Stone Castle Vineyards Provides Pride, Hope & Jobs.
• Linda at My Full Wine Glass features Dry or Dryish, Hungarian Furmint is Having a Moment.
• Nicole at Somm’s Table explores Stranger Grapes with Eric Danch of Danch & Granger Selections.
• Susannah from Avvinare shares Slovenia Wines from Brda, Not to Be Missed.
• Terri from Our Good Life looks at Ancient Gamza in 2021: Best Wine with Burgers from Eastern Europe.
• Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm has Georgia On My Mind.
• Andrea at The Quirky Cork takes A Deep Dive into Hungarian Wine!