WTN: A Slovene & Croatian White...(short/boring)

Tried these two @ Cam's in NYC a week ago:
1. Batic Zaria V.O. Vipavska Dolina (13%; 50% Pinela/25% Rebula/25% Zelen; BlueDanubeWineCo) 2012: Med.gold/copper color; strong appley/apple cider/very resiny quite phenolic bit dirty feet/athlete's foot fungus interesting nose; soft very phenolic/metallic/tangy very resiny/apple cider little fruit flavor w/ strong tannic bite; very long very phenolic/resiny slight wet dog fur finish w/ hard tannic bite; a pretty classic heavy skin-contact white w/ heavy phenolic loading but no oxidative character; shows a little bit of fusty/funky character but not enough to ruin the wine. $14.00 (AmsterdamWineCo)
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2. Kozlovic Malvazija Istria (13.0%; L2014) Croatia 2013: Light gold color; strong floral/apple blossom/peach blossom lightly muscatty bit mineral/chalky pleasant nose; bit tart/tangy lightly muscatty/floral rather stony/mineral/chalky flavor; med.long tart/tangy/bit metallic light floral/muscatty/orange blossom bit chalky/mineral finish; a rather pleasant Malvasia w/ light muscatty character. $20.00 (AmsterdamWineCo)
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A wee BloodyPulpit:
1. Pinela: This is a grape variety some think native to the Veneto, some think Slovenia. Whichever, from this wine it's not clear that Pinela should be planted all up & down the coast of Calif.
The Zaria name is Slovene for "dawn". Named such because it represent the new dawn of ancient Georgian winemaking techniques.
This wine was made w/ skin contact throughout fermentation and then some. But not made as a traditional "orange" wine has it had no oxidative character. The wine had a very heavy phenolic loading and was rather painful to taste/drink on its own. Not a good wine. But when tasted w/ brined/savory black olives, the wine was much/much better to drink and actually rather pleasurable.
The wine was originally priced at $40/btl. My guess is that this totally misunderstood wine tasted so bad to conventional drinkers that BlueDanube had to unload the stuff at a super/cheap price.
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2. Malvasia: This Croatian Malvasia is made from the Malvasia d'Istriana grape variety....common to this area around the Istrian Peninsula. This was a rather pleasant Malvasia but not as good as most Friuli/Slovene renditions of this grape. My impression is that Croatian winemaking is not yet at the level of Friuli or Slovenia.
Tom.

That Amsterdam has some cool juice Tom, is there a website?

[Jenise]

I have one bottle of Slovenian white that I'm going to open tonight, coincidentally. My November neighborhood tasting is themed "They make WINE there???" and I have a few samples to review. This will only be the second Slovenian white I've ever had--the other, a very good Movia, was long ago. But anyway, this is just a comment on the fact that in searching for oddball wines from far off places, reds were rather comparatively plentiful but whites almost nonexistent. Would sure be a hardsell for the average non-geek if more were like your Batic.

My impression is that Croatian winemaking is not yet at the level of Friuli or Slovenia.
Tom.

My impression too. Lots of good stuff going on in Friuli. The lingering effects of the old political system still holds back Slovenian wine and the effects are even more evident in Croatia.