#Macedonia14: day one – photos from visits@ Skovin and Kamnik, etc.

 Skovin: from the top of their 

very large block of vines (400-500 ha) overlooking Skopje

 Venera Gelebesheva Krstik, head enolgist@Skovin

Pero Mocan, executive director of Skovin

5pm time for a light lunch@Skovin

Prof Dr Goran Milanov, winemaker and consultant@Kamnik 

and for a number of wineries in Serbia  

Prof Dr Klime Beleski, viticulturalist

 Zoran Velkoski

 Vineyards of Château Kamnik, Skopje 

 Château Kamnik, Skopje 

Time for some bubbles before tasting the Kamnik range

Ilija Malinkovski, the owner in white shirt, 

Steven Spurrier in distance

Svetozar Janevski, president of Association Wines of Macedonia

Gorgi Petrusev, executive director of Association Wines of Macedonia

 

Elena Miloshevska, coordinator of Association Wines of Macedonia

 

New Riedel design for forgotten grape varieties 

Wine on tap: 24/7!

Macedonia: Day one (8th May 2014)

 Rather hazy views of part of Skopje from Hotel Kamnik

early this morning

We arrived at Skopje Airport around 11pm after two flights with a quick change at Zagreb from a largish jet into a fairly small propeller plane ride on down to the Republic of Macedonia.

Zoran Velkoski and Ilija Malinkovski, the owner of Château Kamnik which currently has 13 hectares of vines along with an hotel where we are staying. This morning Caroline Gilby MW, Stephen Brook and I will be heading out to see some mosaics, while we await the arrival of Steven Spurrier and Julia Harding who rather inexplicably preferred to get up in the middle of the night to catch a very early plane from Heathrow instead of the more civilised option of travelling yesterday late afternoon.

As they eat late here we were able to enjoy some charcuterie and salad with Zoran and Ilija once we had settled into our hotel plus try Kamnik's entry level white and red bag-in-box wines. The refreshing white was a blend of five or varieties including Muscat, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc while the easy drinking red included some Sangiovese in the blend.