Nestled in the centre of the Balkans is the country called North Macedonia. It is a mountainous place that reaches an impressive 2,752 metres (9,030 feet) at Mount Korab on the Albanian border. They are famous for their intense and powerful wines made from the vranec grape, but that is not the only thing they have to offer the curious wine lovers. There are several other exciting local grape varieties, as well as international grapes. To get a better understanding of the Macedonian wines, I sat down and had a chat with someone who knows them better than most, Zvonko Herceg, the president of the Macedonian Association of Sommeliers. We talked about some of the unique qualities of Macedonian wines and what to look for if you’re a novice drinker of Macedonian wines (to be honest, most of us are). And, of course, some details about the famous vranec (vranac) wines.
This is a longer version of an article published on Forbes.com.
But first a little history and geography. North Macedonia shares a turbulent history with several of the other Balkan countries. Up until the First World War it was part of the Ottoman Empire. After that it was ruled by Bulgaria for some time and then Serbia. Following the Second World War it became part of Yugoslavia. When Yugoslavia disintegrated it became an independent country in 1991. For many years it was known as the country with one of the oddest names in history, FYROM, an abbreviation of “Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”. Greece objected to it using simply Macedonia as name, since Greece’s northern province is also named Macedonia. Finally, in 2018 a compromise was established and the country is since then called North Macedonia. Yes, life and politics can be complicated in the Balkans.
It is a relatively small country, about the same size as Israel or Haiti, as big as Massachusets in the USA or in between the sizes of Värmland and Dalarna in Sweden. You’ll drive across it from north to south in about two hours and a little bit more from east to west. It’s a landlocked country, it doesn’t reach any sea although it is not far from either the Ionian Sea (across Albania) or the Aegean Sea (across Greece). It borders Greece in the south, Bulgaria in the east, Serbia and Kosovo in the north and Albania in the west.
A while back, I was in North Macedonia to be a tasting judge for the CMB Vranec Selection, the world competition for vranec wines. It was jointly organised by Wines of Macedonia, Zvonko Herceg and the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles (CMB). What we tasted was the world’s most extensive collection of vranec wines tasted at one event, with wines from North Macedonia, Serbia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia. You can read more about the vranec/vranac competition in this article.
I took that as an opportunity to sit down with Zvonko Herceg, someone who knows North Macedonian wines inside and out. Zvonko is the president of the Macedonian Association of Sommeliers, a wine educator, and a judge in international wine competitions and many other things in wine. I wanted to get his insider’s view of this little-known Balkan country and what they can do both with vranec and with other grapes.
I started by asked Zvonko what the very first thing to know and discover about Northern Macedonia for someone who does not know much about it. (And, really, who does?) “80% it’s a mountain country. We have a lot of hidden valleys, different orientations with different climates,” explained Zvonko. In addition to this, he pointed out that the soil is similarly varied, different from one valley to another.
Why is this varied and mountainous geography important? Zvonko continued, “We have a good opportunity to plant a lot of grape varieties. And I can say that at the moment, we really explore a very wide range of grape varieties. So, maybe this is something exciting for someone who came to the Balkan Peninsula, and especially in North Macedonia. To taste different grape varieties, some of which are mostly international from other famous wine regions, but also can find some typical Balkan or indigenous grape varieties from North Macedonia.”
You can listen to the whole conversation I had with Zvonko Herceg in this video:
This gives a good platform for a wide variety of both “international” grape varieties and domestic indigenous grapes. Quite naturally, Zvonko seems most proud of the local grape varieties, “I will emphasize the white grape variety like smederevka, which is the most planted white grape variety in North Macedonia. And from this group of white grape varieties, also very important is the temjanika, as it is locally called, but it’s (the local name for) muscat blanc, of the group of the Muscat very aromatic but made in a dry style.”
“For the red wines, we can point out kratosija, mostly recognized as zinfandel or primitivo, or crljenak kaštelanski in Croatia, or tribidrag in Croatia, the other name of this grape variety, plavac mali, which is actually also registered as a Croatian grape variety, but this comes from the Balkan Peninsula.” Yes, in fact, what one often thinks of as a very American grape variety – zinfandel – comes originally from the Balkan peninsula. But there’s more, zhilavka, smederevka, zupjanka, stanushina…
Let’s look at the numbers. Here’s the top list of red grape varieties planted in the vineyards of North Macedonia
- Vranec, 10,800 ha (we’ll come back to this in a minute)
- Merlot, 7,500 ha
- Kratosija (zinfandel), 1,050 ha
- Pinot noir, 508 ha
- Prokupac, 480 ha
- Plovdina, 265 ha
- Syrah, 90 ha
- Plavac mali 50 ha
- Teran, 82 ha
The main white grape varieties in North Macedonia are:
- Smederevka, 7,500 ha
- Riesling (rhine riesling), 990 ha
- Chardonnay, 818 ha
- Rkatsiteli, 482 ha
- Temjanika (muscat blanc), 381 ha
- Muscat d’hambourg, 381 ha
- Welschriesling, 305 ha
- Zupljanka, 282 ha
- Zilavka, 212 ha
- Sauvignon blanc, 209 ha
Just like several of the other countries of current-day Balkans, North Macedonia was part of Yugoslavia before it was broken up in 1990-1991. This has, of course, left a trace also in the wine industry. As Zvonko explains, they also have, for example, the Hungarian furmint grape and others, “We also have furmint here, and a lot of other grape varieties, because in the past, in the then Yugoslavia, all these republics (that made up Yugoslavia), had some kind of rules to exchange the plant materials to explore where they can find a good spot for growing, can give the quality grape and wine. We also have welschriesling (or grasevina, as it is also called). Yes, a lot of grape varieties, really.”
When I sat down and talked to Zvonko, we had just finished the world’s first competition for vranec wines, the CMB Vranec Selection, that Zvonko Herceg had organised in collaboration with the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles where I was participating as a tasting judge. It’s perhaps a good idea to take a few moments to explain about the grape name. The grape is called vranEc in Macedonia and vranAc in the rest of the Balkans.
Vranec is often considered as having its origine in Montenegro, just west of Macedonia. It has been identified as being the offspring (crossing) between kratosija (zinfandel) and duljenga (the latter an obscure ancient variety). Macedonia has by far the largest plantings with 10,800 ha. Montenegro has 1,800 hectares of vranac, where it is the by far dominant grape variety, Bosnia-Herzegovina 480 ha, Kosovo 478 ha, and Serbia 120 ha (the statistics are not necessarily very accurate). So, call the grape vranec (pronounced “vranets”) if you want to honour the biggest producer or call it vranac if you give preference to the historic origin (as well as the most common name internationally).
Vranec is, without a doubt, the most important grape variety of Macedonia being planted on a third of the total vineyard area.
Why has it become so successful here, I asked Zvonko: “It’s considered not only by me, but the wine experts, that this grape variety has a few good points to show; the style of the wines from ‘the wine Peninsula’, from the Balkan and from the north Macedonia as well. It’s not only planted in North Macedonia. First, it offers a good expression of terroir. It also has good development in the bottle, so you can keep it for a long time in the bottle, maybe 10-15 years. Even more, it depends on the quality and the design of the winemaker.”
Vranec is also an abundant grape in the country. “We have enough quantity of this grape variety to make enough quantity of wines to be promoted and to show to the world our personality, our uniqueness of the oenogastronomic segment through this vranec,” says Zvonko.
Perhaps that’s an important point. North Macedonia produces wine on only some 28,000 hectares (69,000 acres) of wine vineyards, a little more than a tenth of California, so it is perhaps a good idea to focus on one thing when spreading the word about North Macedonian wines.
What is then the characteristics of vranec? It is certainly a grape (and a wine) with its own personality. Sometimes, the country’s wine promoters label it as “the black stallion”. I’m not sure what that is supposed to mean in terms of wine, so I’d rather leave that to the side…
Typically, it makes very dark, well-structured wines with lots of tannins and aromas of dark fruit, violets, and sometimes dark red flowers, and quite high acidity, but it varies a lot. To explain it in another way, as I do in the video below, you can perhaps describe it as a grape that combines the characters of two of the world’s most famous grapes, syrah, with power and spice, and nebbiolo, with intense acidity and tannins.
But the real expert on vranec is, of course, Zvonko, “Vranec is difficult to tame, so you need to work a lot with this grape variety in order to tame the tannins, which are very high and can be very, very harsh. So, that’s why it usually goes into the barrel, ageing to polish it for a long time. Also, the bottle aging as well, to become softer. When it’s young, it has black fruit, aromas of blackberries, and some hint of garrigue. We usually make bâtonnage or punching down, malolactic fermentation as well, which is when the secondary notes develop.”
Zvonko continues, “These wines are very high in acidity, can go up to 9.5 in some cases, from higher altitude, which means that it has good structure and has potential for longer bottle ageing. Tertiary notes are usually like mocha or coffee, or chocolate. It can be dried fruits, dried plums, which make more opulent aromas and flavours of this great variety; so, I will say that is amazing. You can enjoy many layers of these wines.”
Few people have tasted as many vranec wines as Zvonko Herceg, so he should know. If you can find some vranec from Northern Macedonia—or vranac from any of the other Balkan countries—try it yourself. It is definitely worth exploring. And you will be a pioneer in discovering this unusual grape variety from this unusual Balkan country.
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