Sommelier
Fresh, young white wines
By Predrag Gavrilovic
Quantitatively, it is probably the most massive category of wine in the world and most often the first choice that wine lovers encounter. Such wines are fresh, dry, pleasant, mostly very aromatic, watery, which makes them easy to understand, drinkable and widely available. The popularity of a certain style of wine or grape variety is mostly dictated by trends, and we are currently living in an era of such wines.
Elegance, as the most expensive and most valued word in world winemaking , was replaced a few years ago by Freshness! The concept of characterful wines that reflect the specifics of a certain climate, that inspire you to think about them overnight, has been replaced by freshness and neutrality. The trend was quickly picked up by evaluators, the world's leading wine media and magazines such as Decanter, under whose influence our (transitional) wine industry is also developing to a significant extent. Everything comes at a bad time, because in front of the producers, the market emphasized freshness and "that it is as easy as possible" in a period when we are starting to feel the consequences of something that was announced more than 20 years ago, which is the challenge of climate change, so even the classic harvest is awaited with impatience, and the descriptions of the winegrowing years in the last decade range from catastrophe to natural disasters. This further leads to the fact that the grapes for these types of wines is increasingly difficult to cultivate even in traditional regions known for these types of wines.
But let's start in order.
If we go back a few decades, in the 60s and 70s of the 20th century, when the phenomenon of wine slowly began to conquer the world, this style was not particularly appreciated and noticed. The influence of oak barrels, barriques as the most influential type brought a revolution and the fashion of vanilla tones, roasted nuts, butter, warm bread and other aromas acquired as a result of wine aging in the wooden vessels. Winemakers who did not follow this "Heavy Oak" trend were mostly on the margins of popularity. The trend was widely accepted in the new wine world, especially in California, and lasted until the end of the 1980s. Then winemakers began to slowly reduce the influence of wood, first in France and then in the rest of the world. Of course, this mostly applied to Chardonnay, but also to Sauvignon Blanc, Viognier. This is the period when the meteoric rise of light white wines from northern Italy begins, mainly in the United States, and slowly opens the door to similar wines, mainly Pinot Grigio, Pinot blanc, Friulano varieties, while in France, for starters in Chablis (in all categories), the influence of wood decreases and this world's most famous Chardonnay becomes a much fresher wine.
Newer knowledge also brings a lot of changes in viticulture, enabling certain regions to cheaply produce grapes for such wines, with very high yields, without concentration, using modern products to protect against diseases and a large application of mechanical processing of vineyards in the fields where possible. Varieties leading in this style of wine are Sauvignon blanc, Pinot Grigio, Pinot Bianco, Garganega, Albarino, Gruner Veltliner, Chenin blanc, Aligote, Muscadet.
The era of the 90s also brought better equipment that made it possible to produce this style of wine much more precisely, literally by computer, using selected yeasts, with fermentation at a low temperature to retain freshness and fruity aromas, without long aging, with plenty of protection and without exposure to oxygen at any stage of production , followed by types of closures that offer protection and freshness such as screw caps, popular screw-caps closures or alternatives in the form of silicone and glass. These wines are very fresh, light-bodied, pronounced aromatics depending on the variety, often very neutral with low alcohol, usually 11 to 13%, drinkable, light and without particular long finish , character and gastronomic dimension, making them a good choice as aperitif and summer wines that you don't have to think too much about.
And where is Serbia here?
Fresh, dry and light wines were not particularly popular on the Serbian market 20 years ago. A few wines from Styrian Slovenia, Austria, France and Spain, besides short-lasting flashes, were not significantly noticed. With the appearance of new generations and formats such as wine bars and a complete offer of wine by the glass in restaurants and cafes, lighter wines from the varieties Sauvignon Blanc, Gruner Veltliner, Verdejo, Albarino, Muscadet, Garganega, Cortese are gaining importance, in addition to Traminac and Tamjanika. Also, the offer of such light wines in the leading retail chains has been significantly increased in a price category lower than that represented in the HoReCa sector. This selection of wines mainly comes from large producing countries, considering that the Serbian industry still does not have a sufficient amount of vine plantings to have a significant share in the market of this style of wine.
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It was not worth time
