You may remember that several months ago we reviewed our first Serbian wine, a Riesling from this same producer. Today's wine is also white, based on the Muscat Ottonel grape, one of the many members of the Muscat family. Muscat Ottonel is often used in dessert wines. The producer, Navip, is the largest wine exporter in ex-Yugoslavia. According to their website, Navip exports two million tons of wine a year. That's a lot of bottles. They have made a major commitment to organic wine, but at the time of this writing their organic wine is still not available locally. By the way, they also make Slivovitz, plum brandy.
OUR WINE REVIEW POLICY All wines that we taste and review were purchased at the full retail price.
Wine Reviewed Navip Muscat Ottonel 2007 12.0% alcohol about $8
Let's start by quoting the marketing materials. Tasting Note: Deep lemon color; dry and fruity with honeycomb, floral, spice aromas and flavors; crisp, clean finish. Serving Suggestion: Asian foods; spicy sausage. And now for my review.
At the first sips the wine tasted of lemon. It had moderate acidity and was fairly short. Its first pairing was with slow cooked beef ribs that were accompanied by sliced potatoes and a tomato, onion, lime, cilantro and green pepper salsa that was more spicy than I would have preferred. The acidity was fine for the meat and potatoes and there was a little bit of lemon. This wine and this meal didn't really gel - I definitely never blame the wine for not succeeding in a non-traditional pairing. Dessert was orange-flavored fruit candy; things worked better. The dominant taste was almonds and there was some honey as well.
The next meal was a more traditional pairing for a white wine. It was a commercial bar-be-cued chicken accompanied by potatoes roasted in chicken fat and an oriental tomato salad that was moderately spicy. The Muscat was lemony with crisp acidity when paired with the chicken breast; it seemed to grow to meet the stronger tasting, less dry chicken leg. But it backed down when facing the potatoes and even more so when paired with the salad.
My final meal involved a portobello mushroom omelet. The wine was lemony and not very sweet. It had unbalanced acidity. Dessert consisted of a high-quality French-style lemon pie with a very buttery crust. And now the Muscat was flat and tasteless.
I ended the bottle with two local cheeses. But first came some Matjes herring. Here the wine did better. It was somewhat nutty; there was lemon and refreshing acidity. First came the brick cheese. The cheese was flat, and the wine was flat. Does this mean that they paired well? With a tastier Swiss cheese the wine was nicely acidic and long but didn't have a lot of fruit.
Final verdict. I have no plans to buy this wine again. It really wasn't very tasty. But at this low price you could definitely do worse.
Author Resource:
Levi Reiss authored or co-authored ten books on computers and the Internet, but really prefers drink fine German, Italian, or other wine. He teaches various computer classes at an Ontario French-language community college. His global wine website www.theworldwidewine.com features a weekly review of $10 wines and new sections writing about and tasting organic and kosher wines. Visit his wine, nutrition, and health website www.wineinyourdiet.com .
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