A Wine Lover's Weekly Guide To $10 Wines - A Serbian Riesling

This is our first review of a wine from Serbia, a small country in southeastern Europe in the former Yugoslavia. Fruska Gora means Frankish mountain in the local language. This region lies along the Danube to the northeast of Serbia's capital Belgrade. It claims to be the oldest wine-producing region in Europe. They have been exporting wine since the Fifteenth Century. Given the local microclimate, the grapes ripen early. You may want to visit; the area is home to seventeen Orthodox monasteries and just as many lakes. Navip has been in business for 150 years and is the largest wine exporter in ex-Yugoslavia. They have made a commitment to organic wine, but presently Navip organic wines aren't available in my area.

OUR WINE REVIEW POLICY All wines that we taste and review are purchased at the full retail price.

Wine Reviewed Navip Riesling Fruska Gora, 2006 11% alcohol about $7.50

Let's start with the marketing materials. Tasting Note: Pale straw, grassy, apple, pear aromas; off-dry, citrus flavors. Serving Suggestion: Roast pork, blackened fish. And now for my review.

At first tasting the wine was slightly acidic with a moderate length. It was limey. The first meal was a boxed eggplant parmagiana that I slathered with grated Parmesan cheese. At first I thought the wine lost its length but this problem corrected itself as the meal continued. The wine showed refreshing acidity that accompanied the meal's tomatoes. The taste of lime was predominant.

The second meal consisted of whole-wheat pasta with homemade pesto and grated Parmesan cheese. The Riesling was lightly acidic with some citrus and a touch of citrus.

For my final meal I had homemade cheese less lasagna with whole-wheat noodles, peas, green olives, ground beef, and a lightly spicy salsa. At first the wine was fleeting but tasted of lime and had good acidity to deal with the meat's grease. As the meal continued the Riesling grew in intensity. Fresh watermelon weakened the wine's acidity but its fruit remained.

As usual, I finished the tasting with two cheeses. But first I tried Matjes herring. The wine was delicate (positive) and short (negative) with a taste of apples. The first cheese was a provolone. The wine's apple taste intensified and it became longer. The second cheese was an Emmenthal (Swiss). This cheese was too strong for the wine.

Final verdict. This wine offers good value. Instead of buying it again, I'll try at least one more of the producer's offering and regret that its organic cousins aren't available in my area. As an added bonus, this wine has only 11% alcohol. It's getting harder and harder to find such "low-alcohol" wines. But I never had the impression that the alcohol was missing or even low.


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Levi Reiss has authored or co-authored ten computer and Internet books, but really prefers fine Italian or other wine, with good food and company. He loves teaching 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. His Italian travel website is www.travelitalytravel.com .