When you start looking for new wines, you hear the word terroir a lot. Usually from someone who takes a sip, swills it around, and announces that the wine has an exquisite one. If you already know the term, skip ahead. If not, here is what it means and why it matters for North Macedonian wine.
Terroir is a French word meaning, roughly, sense of place. It refers to the characteristics of a region and how they show up in what's grown there. The idea is that wine from a particular place carries something that can't be reproduced anywhere else. Climate does most of the work, but soil, topography and even the local microbial life all contribute.
North Macedonian terroir has genuine points of comparison with Bordeaux and Tuscany, which is a large part of why the wine is as good as it is. Here is the Tikveš region and the micro-locations within it.
A note on who we are
We are a London company. We do not make these wines and we do not farm these vineyards. We buy direct from Tikveš and check the vintage on every bottle when it lands. Everything below describes the winery's work, not ours.
Tikveš Terroir
The Tikveš region sits on roughly the same latitude as Napa Valley, Bordeaux and Tuscany. It is the largest wine region in North Macedonia, and it runs on a mix of Continental and Mediterranean climates. Summers in the south are long and hot. Winters in the north are mild and wet. Temperatures in the region can pass 40°C in high summer.
Topographically, the region is protected by mountains on three sides, which shields the vines from northern winds. The grapes grown here, Vranec, Chardonnay and Temjanika among them, have adapted to rendzina, vertisol, terra rossa and the local alluvial soils.
Micro-locations
Barovo
Barovo is a micro-location within the Tikveš region, running on a mix of Mediterranean and mountain climate. The site is made up of smaller parcels with different soils and their own micro-climates, which suits several varieties: Sauvignon Blanc, Temjanika and Vranec among them.
Wines from here are fresh and lively. That comes from the daily temperature swing, which is large enough that the grapes hold onto acidity as they ripen. Getting that balance right is difficult, and it is the reason Barovo wines behave the way they do.
Barovo sits at altitude, high enough that the area is sometimes called the highest fruit garden in the Balkans. Vines that work hard produce better fruit, and the structure of the resulting wines means they will age for years, in barrel or in bottle.
There is no irrigation at Barovo. The vineyards rely on rainfall in the cooler months, and the soil holds moisture well enough that the roots stay healthy through the year. Barovo Red is the wine that comes off this site, and it is the flagship of the range.
Bela Voda
Bela Voda wines take their name from the vineyard where the grapes grow. The site is planted mainly to Chardonnay and Grenache Blanc, both fairly neutral grapes, which is precisely why they work here: with little varietal character of their own to get in the way, what comes through is the site.
The whites carry tropical fruit aromatics with vanilla and coconut from the barrel, and a freshness underneath that is the signature of the place. Bela Voda White is the one we carry.
The Bela Voda reds come from Vranec and Plavec, and show berry fruit with spice, juicy and fresh, with polished tannin and a long finish. We do not currently stock the red.
The Tikveš region is, in a real sense, a working museum of winemaking. If you want to taste it rather than read about it, the full range is the place to start, and every product page names the grapes and the vintage in the bottle.