There are fascinating wines coming from the Balkans at the moment. No surprise given the history of wine cultivation there. Who can forget the beauty of the two thousand year old Ilyrian wine amphora discovered recently off the coast of Albania on a Roman wreck?  Take a peek here if you haven’t [ http://bit.ly/nh8d4o ]. A touch patronising today then to be ‘discovering’ wines from the region but a recent tasting organised by Wines of Croatia, including a selection of forty odd wines chosen by the UK’s merry Wine Gang of journalists, showed how modern techniques, indigenous varieties and diverse terroirs are producing some brilliant wines.  Certainly you wouldn’t want to miss out on the wild flavours of the red Plavac Mali grape or Pošip, a local white.  Malvasia Istria also turns it hand at some tremendously refreshing, and occasionally weighty whites. You may not have herd of Crljenac but you’ll better know it as Zinfandel. Babić and Teran, a Refosco relative, can also produce very good reds.

Freshness and delicacy characterised the best wines shown at a tasting of the wines of Slovenia in June in London’s Millbank. A group of thirty or so growers, some already with UK distribution, others seeking it, showed a range of appetising whites and a number of impressive reds that showed good depth and density.