We drove 20 minutes from Trieste to Parovel winery, which is nearly on the border with Slovenia. We first walked around the vineyard and sampled the grapes on the vine, as they were not quite ready to harvest yet (any day now). Chris is about to ask if they have any Chardonnay (they didn’t).
We then went into the cellar, which was suprisingly small. They aren’t making a lot of wine here.
They have what looks like parts of a Terminator at the entrance to the cellar to keep out the unwanted humans. Didn’t work!
We were then treated to an olive oil tasting from oil grown and crushed at their facility. Sorry, but I’m not an olive oil geek (unlike Tony, who about filled a suitcase with the stuff). While they had different flavor profiles, I think the bread quality is far more important than the oil. That’s just me, and this is my blog, so I can pretty much express myself how I want (Facebook can’t ban me here…bite me FB!). More of that expression coming up (feel free to comment and call me a misguided idiot, it won’t be the first time). BTW, look at Michelle and Aditi concentrating on that pour!
They then started opening their wines. Here is where the wine trip, for me, took a little detour from the prior five days. They opened four wines….two whites and two reds. The first was a 2016 Malvasia.
Sorry, but I didn’t like it. Even worse, I didn’t like any of the wines they opened. Trust me, they were nice people, I wanted to like their wine, but it just wasn’t good. We had a plethora of excellent wines on this trip, and these just didn’t come close to me.
I stopped taking photos of the bottles because I tend to take photos of wines I like and use that as a reminder should I decide to buy some. I love Peter and Nina, and would do another trip with them in a heartbeat, but for me (and Kim), this one was off the mark. Enough about Parovel.
The bus ride back to the hotel was better, because I opened a Vermentino that Peter gave me, and it was the wine of the day (to that point).
We had an hour of rest at the hotel before we departed for our final winery (and dinner) of the trip, Hisa Stekar, located in nearby Kojsko, Slovenia. After an adventurous bus ride, where the driver took some bad advice from an obviously inebriated Solvenian, and a quick 5 minute walk downhill, we made it to the winery. The below is a collage of the setting and the food for dinner, courtesy of Tony, the Olive Oil King.
The food was excellent, and the wines were better! Now this is a great Malvasia! Maybe it was the Slovenian spelling?
I’m not partial to Cab Franc, but this was pretty damn good!
This was my wine of the day! Wow, what an excellent Tokai! I’ve had a couple of Tokai’s before, and I thought I just hated the varietal. This was awesome! I will be buying some! For some reason they are not allowed to put Tokai on the label. Kim noticed they simply spelled Tokai backwards (in Slovenian). Yure, the winemaker, let us know that was his son Filip’s handprint on the label (you can barely see it in this photo).
The red wine was also very good! I don’t recall the varietals. I think it was Cab Franc and Merlot?
A better shot of the hand on the label.
Here is Yure’s wife Tamara, along with Chris Stotka’s girlfriend, T(amara).
Yure had a friend, Kenzo, in from Naples for harvest, and he gave us a little concert. I tried to fix him up with Michele, but he spoke almost no English (with the exception of “you are beautiful”…the first thing Italian men learn in English).
One last group shot! Excellent evening! The bus driver didn’t even get lost on the way back.
The next morning we were off to Venice airport to drop off the group. Fortunately, Tinto Travels arranged for the bus to take us to Verona so we didn’t have to hassle with taking the train. Thanks guys! Looking forward to seeing the group again some day. If anybody is thinking about doing this trip, think no more…just sign up already! You won’t be sorry.
Next up, Verona.