Wine & Spirits - Winter 2017 - 83

Movia

After more than a century, Blandy's is reemerging as a source of new colheitas
to amplify dinner, and rare older wines to enjoy late into the night.

Ales Kristancic makes some of the most intriguing and category-defying wines
in all of Slovenia and northeastern Italy.

Boom & Bust: John Blandy left England for Madeira to recover from
ill health in 1808. He worked for the firm that would later become
Cossart Gordon and eventually established his own wine company.
His success left his son, Charles Ridpath Blandy, with the financial
strength to buy up stocks in the 1850s. By the time phylloxera arrived
later that century, the Blandy family had the largest stocks on the
island and, having expanded into other businesses, they were well
positioned to survive the lean years that followed. Once a thriving
wine trade, Madeira lost markets to 20th-century revolutions and, in
the US, Prohibition; the Blandys joined with other shippers to found
the Madeira Wine Company as a means to survive the loss of the
American market.

Shifting Borders: The Movia estate in the Slovenian village of Ceglo
sits on a hilltop just 200 yards from the Italian border. Ceglo was
under Austrian rule when the Kristancic family acquired Movia in
1820, and the hills that are now called Collio in Italy, and Brda in Slovenia, were one region. Lines drawn after WWII ran right through
the Kristancic's vineyards, leaving about half on each side of the
Italian-Yugoslavian border. Most of the wineries in Yugoslavia were
required to sell their grapes to the local cooperative winery, but
Kristancic's grandfather gained special dispensation to continue
making wines for official state functions.

Madeira 2.0: The tide has turned since Portugal entered the European Union, which banned the export of wine from "direct producers" (American rootstocks, imported to survive phylloxera, that have
never been grafted) and provided funds for replanting to vitis vinifera. By 2011, 200 years after the company's founding, the Blandys
had bought back a majority stake in the Madeira Wine Company,
now run by Christopher Blandy, the seventh generation of the family
in the Madeira wine trade.
Island Savor: The island's trade is now fostered by
age-designated wines like the Alvada 5 Year Rich
Madeira, a wine with savory notes of green
olive and yellow flowers to counter its flavors
of candied orange peel and pecan caramels.
Blandy's offers a range of colheita bottlings, wines from a single harvest, bottled
earlier than the 20 years required for a frasqueira (vintage). Check out the peppery
2002 Sercial Colheita, its persistent acidity smoothed by notes of butterscotch, or
Chris Blandy
the 1996 Malmsey Colheita, its caramel and
toasted hazelnut flavors refreshed by brisk lime
notes. Or invest in a rarity, the 1980 Terrantez
Medium Rich, made from one of the last old vineyards of terrantez. It's a connection to the island's past,
with the salty abrasion and voluptuous textures, the
richness and freshness that once connected Europe to the
New World. -J.G.

Eclectic Winemaking: Kristancic joined the family business after oenology studies at Padua and stages in Burgundy and Bordeaux, bringing
with him a winemaking philosophy that combines natural methods
and modern technology. His preference for skin-macerated white
wines led him to develop a customized vacuum press that gently
extracts the juice in an oxygen-free environment, preserving the
integrity of the skins for long maceration and lessening the need for
sulfur additions typically used to avoid oxidation. He harvests about
five percent of his grapes early and lets them ferment spontaneously, then extracts different strains of yeast to add
to the rest of the harvested grapes to ensure that
his spontaneous ferments reach completion. His
methods can hardly be described as noninterventionist, but the wines feel entirely natural
and authentic.
Averting Disaster: Kristancic calls the cold,
rainy 2014 vintage one of the most difficult of his career, and credits organic vineyard practices with salvaging the quality of
Ales Kristancic
his wines. Without chemical sprays, he says,
the grapes developed thicker skins to defend
against rot, giving him better material to work
with during fermentations. His efforts paid off with
a trio of delicious wines, all aged in used oak barriques
for about 18 months. The 2014 sauvignon blanc is an atypical rendering of the variety; it feels both creamy and mineral, with
cool notes of cucumber and rosemary that weave through
juicy citrus and white peach flavors. The pinot grigio and
ribolla (called rebula in Slovenia side) feel more autumnal in their rich flavors of baked fruit, honey and brown
spices. -S.J.

DETAILS & TOP WINES

Founded: 1811 * Winemaker: Francisco Albuquerque
Viticulturist: Gonçalo Tito Caldeira * Owner: Chris Blandy
Acres owned: 20 * Annual production: 40,000 cases
Estate grown: 20% * Importer: Premium Port Wines, San
Francisco, CA * Website: blandys.com

Founded: 1820 * Winemaker/viticulturist: Ales Kristancic
Owner: The Kristancic family * Acres owned: 54 * Annual
production: 7,500 cases * Estate grown: 100% * Importer:
Domaine Select Wine & Spirits, NY * Website: movia.si

96 1980 Madeira Terrantez Medium Rich $240 (10/17)
92 1996 Madeira Malmsey Colheita $50 (10/17)
91 2002 Madeira Sercial Colheita $50 (10/17)

93 2014 Brda Sauvignon $30 (10/17)
91 2014 Brda Sivi Pinot Grigio $30 (10/17)
90 2014 Brda Rebula $30 (10/17)

P ORTUGAL M ADEIRA

S LOVENIA
WINE & SPIRITS

BUYING GUIDE 2018

TOP 100 WINERIES 2017

Blandy's

http://www.movia.si http://www.blandys.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Wine & Spirits - Winter 2017