wine – Bill's Blog

Responsible Mom and Aunt, originally uploaded by bill kralovec.

Yesterday we visited Kovačević Wine Cellar located in the village of Irig, which is about 70 kilometers north of Belgrade. The village lies in the Fruška Gora National Park. Fruška Gora means “Frankish Mountain” in English. It is a region of hills that are in the middle of the flat plains of Vojvodina. The hills were a natural frontier of the Frankish Empire back in the 400s. I prefer the Roman name for the area, Fertile Mountain because it is a great region for growing grapes. The Franks have not been around in a long time. Besides wine, Fruska Gora has some hiking and 12 Serbian Orthodox monasteries, and we will come back again for those.

We found the address of Kovačević in a guide to the wines of Serbia and it was recommended to us by friends. It is not the vineyards and elegant tasting experience of the wineries we went to in Australia, but a nice experience nonetheless. There is no sign in front and so we went around the side of the building. The workers were busy with crushing the grapes and the kids got to see the process of fermentation and storage.

The Kids Save the Grapes from Being Crushed

I was most excited to try the Bermet, which is a type of wine only produced by the Fruska Gora wineries. It is a strong dessert wine, that is infused with herbs and spices. It used to be very popular with the Austro-Hungarian royalty and it was on the wine list of the Titanic. Today, it is not known outside of Serbia. We liked both the white and red versions of the Bermet. We bought two bottles of the red. We also liked the Aurelius, a mix of Cab Sav and Merlot, aged in the barrels below. Nadia also bought a Rajninski Reisling and Chardonnay. I also liked the Reisling, which had tones of green apples. We will be visiting the region again! After the winery, we had dinner in Novi Sad and walked around the beautiful old part of town.

The highlight of the day however was not the sightseeing, but just spending time with the kids. Below they are eating another of my delicious breakfast entrees. It is good also to have my nephew Sebey visiting us.

Ollie and Ocean are shown above playing in the leaves in our yard. I did a bit of yard work Saturday morning and the kids had fun. The weather yesterday was in the high 70’s and it felt like summer again. I also swept the steps of leaves and debris, changes multiple lights around the house, and generally cleaned up. In the early morning we went to Merkator for our bi-weekly shopping trip and spent $290 on groceries.

In the afternoon I went to school to meet with our DP Coordinator Liz and we worked a bit on next semester’s schedule. After that I came home and prepared the kids for the baby sitter. Yes, Nadia and I went out on a date!!! We are celebrating the anniversary of when we fell in love. On Halloween weekend in 1997, we began our relationship and have been with each other ever since. Ollie’s teacher assistant, Jelena, came and watched the kids. It was perfect. We went to Duomo, and upscale Italian restaurant in the Dorcol suburb of Belgrade. Excellent salads, pasta, and pizza, and a nice atmosphere. Nadia and I shared a bottle of wine and came home around 9:30 PM. A rare night out for us, but we plan to do this more often. With three young children, most of the time we are devoted to them and our relationship has been lost in the maelstrom of work and kids.

Happy Anniversary Baby, I hope we have many more!

Wine Note- The wine was a red named “Adega de Pegoes” which is produced by a Agriculture Coop in Portugal. The vintage was 2007 but I didn’t get the grape variety. Excellent