Krasnostop Zolotovsky

We've not made a single trip to Russia on this journey. Let's put an end to that today. Since we were in Romania yesterday, we're going to find a new way for getting to our destination. Traveling to the east across Romania about 3 hours to the east of Bucharest, we come to the Black Sea port town of Constanta. There, our captain awaits and our chartered yacht will take us first easterly and then northerly through the tiny isthmus at Kerch Kepy and into the Sea of Azov. In the northeastern corner, we disembark at Rostov on the Don River.

As a port city and a gateway to the Black Sea, Rostov has been a strategic military stronghold during every invasion of Russia during modern times. Austrians and Germans occupied the city during World War I, it was a primary battleground during the Russian Civil War and the Germans blocked access to the south by occupying Rostov when they invaded Russia early in World War II. Today, its people are mostly ethinic Russian with a fair number of ethnic Armenians and Azerbaijanis many of whom make up the heart of the local wine industry.

The weather here is good for growing grapes during the summer months. The problem though comes from often terribly cold winters. Vines must be particularly hardy to withstand temperatures that occasionally hit -30C/-22F. But, during the summer, the proximity to the Sea of Azov often provides for evening and morning fogs giving the grapes nice warmth during the day, but a pleasant resting time at night.

Today we are here to drink a single varietal wine made from Krasnostop Zolotovsky. It's a horrible looking name and certainly not one that rolls off the English speaking tongue, but looking at the roots of the words, we note that we have krasniy and stopa (grape stalks). So, we know we are going to be drinking a red wine.

Not surprisingly, given the reputation of the area, this looks like a high alcohol wine. Swirling the wine in the glass and tilting it, we see long, thick legs on the glass that while many people think to be a measure of quality is really a measure of alcoholic content.

It's a very dark red in color, quite tannic, and somewhat acidic as well. On the nose, we get lots of earthtones as well as dark roasted coffee and a bit of tanned leather. On the palate, we are hit first by black plums and red currants as well as green bell peppers not unlike Cabernet Franc, but the finish is more reminiscent of a Shiraz with its dark coffee notes.

Serve this wine with local meats and stews. It's rich and will easily work to break down the fats in the often lower quality meats that are dumped into dishes of that type.