Digital wine tasting promotes dialogue on EU wine regulations

For an "exchange of the senses", a sensory evaluation, the wine tasting, is a reliable instrument that works especially well in conviviality. The country representatives from Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, Northern Macedonia and Serbia were each asked to select one white and one red wine of autochthonous grape varieties, i.e. native to the region. The wines were subjected in advance to an independent sensory and analytical evaluation at the DLG test center using the German DLG test system. This system is also used by the German authorities to evaluate wines with protected designation of origin (PDO).

The actual online tasting took place at the end of March, bringing together proven experts and government representatives via video conference. Under the moderation of Mr. Bleile, chairman of several wine competitions, and with the assistance of Mr. Herrmann, publication director of the magazine "Wein + Markt", and Mr. Seitz, oenologist and long-term expert of the IAK, the twelve wines of the Western Balkans were tasted. During the tasting, each country presented its selected wines and shared interesting background information about the grape variety and the reasons for its selection. Due to the unconventional, interactive nature of the tasting, it was possible to adjust and optimize the order of the wines during the tasting.

After about two hours of lively tasting, the participants agreed to specifically promote the red grape variety Vranac, which is found throughout the Western Balkans, as the most promising autochthonous variety in the future. Thus, a special country-comparison tasting of this typical variety is to be carried out at a later date. Furthermore, the question of how Vranac wines can be jointly positioned in the international context in the future is to be addressed.