On our way down to Georgetown the other day, Robert and I decided to swing by Esquin to pick up a couple of bottles of wine. I normally prefer to shop at my neighborhood wine shop because it is close to home and has a quirky charm. But, Esquin also has its pluses. Namely, that it is huge! If you are looking for a special or unusual wine, Esquin is the place to go (although, even they didn’t have the delicious Pericles that I tried at Crave last month.) Because Esquin has such a broad range of choices, I felt that I should try something a little bit different so I picked up a Croatian wine: Marko Polo 2005 Pošip. This was exciting for me because, well, trying a wine from a new region is always exciting, but also because I am one quarter Croatian myself!
Like most other European countries, Croatia’s wine making history dates back to before the rise of the Roman Empire. Still, it is only relatively recently (since Croatia declared their independence from Yugoslavia in fact) that Croatian wine has started to gain a presence in the world market. Croatia is divided into two large wine areas: the interior and the coastal area. Many of the interior vineyards were destroyed during the war, so the coastal region remains the most prosperous area of the two.
Like neighboring Greece, Croatia has many indigenous grape varietals including Malvazija, Dingač and my wine of the week, Pošip. Pošip is made on the islands of Korcula and Peljesac. Many consider it to be Croatia’s best wine. Pošip is typically a very dry wine with a golden color and full-bodied flavor. And, here’s a twist: with its high acidity and robust alcohol content (13-14%) Pošip can be paired not only with seafood but also chicken and even steak!
As intriguing as the idea of pairing a white wine with steak sounds, I don’t eat steak so I opted for a more standard seafood pairing instead. Since my family is doing Greek food for Christmas this year, I used this winesday as an opportunity to practice my Greek stuffed squid recipe. The squid are stuffed with a delicious filling of rice, mint, currants and pine nuts and are baked in a light tomato sauce. They are very good, but the squid have a real tendency to explode in the oven, no matter how lightly I stuff them. Thus, the practice run. I could care less what the food on my own plate looks like as long as it tastes good, but I certainly don’t want to serve exploded squid to guests for Christmas dinner.
Alongside the stuffed squid, I served grilled pitas with tzatziki and rosemary-roasted vegetables. The food was tasty, but ALL of my squid exploded. Every single one. That’s the first time that has happened. Hmmm…perhaps we will be serving stuffed grape leaves at Christmas instead.
The Pošip was great. It was much more citrusy than I expected given that it is so full-bodied and can be paired with meats. I generally think of citrus flavors with lighter wines and tropical fruit flavors with heavier wines so it was interesting to taste a very full-bodied wine with such light, lemony flavors. It almost reminded me of a really good retsina, minus the pine. It was a perfect match to the food!