CHARINE TAN

Why You Smell What You Smell: Understanding Wine Aroma with Richard Pfister

Wine Education

by CHARINE TAN - November 30, 2019December 12, 2019

Reading Time: Grape is one of the oldest and most important horticultural crops. Grape has also long been of cultural and scientific interest. However, it is only in recent decades that researchers have begun to elucidate the genetic mechanisms behind the biosynthesis and metabolism of volatile compounds in grape. These

If You Find Any Joy or Value in What We do, Please Read This.

Hungarian Wine

by CHARINE TAN - November 29, 2019December 1, 2019

Discover Hungarian Wine Kickstarter Crowdfund Story

Reading Time: Three weeks ago, we launched a Kickstarter campaign for our fourth wine guidebook, Discover Hungarian Wine: A Visitor-Friendly Guide. It was our first time trying to do a crowdfunding project, and oh my, we messed up. It was a perfect case of "you don't know what you don't know until you

Moldovan Wine: Why It Matters and Why You Should Drink It

Moldovan Wine

by CHARINE TAN - September 17, 2019December 1, 2019

Reading Time: Here are a few things you should know about Moldova as a wine country. First, wine is constitutionally recognized as food. In March 2017, the Parliament of Moldova declared wine as a food product. The new law allows wine to be sold in shops after 22:00; advertising wine

Goggiano, ‘Brunot’ Grignolino d’Asti 2018

by CHARINE TAN - July 3, 2019December 27, 2019

Reading Time: Hello! Welcome to As Drunk by Exotic Wine Travel, a weekly column where we feature interesting wines that we encourage you to seek out. The reviews featured in this series may be written by either one or the both of us. The featured wines can be from obscure or

Three Vintages of Jakončič Uvaia

by CHARINE TAN - January 30, 2019December 1, 2019

Reading Time: Article updated on 26 October 2019 Hello! Welcome to As Drunk by Exotic Wine Travel, a weekly column where we feature interesting wines that we encourage you to seek out. The reviews featured in this series may be written by either one or the both of us. The featured

Slovenian Wine: Rebula from Vipava Valley

Slovenian Wine

by CHARINE TAN - November 14, 2018December 30, 2018

Reading Time: "If you like odd grape, then this is something for you. You would either love it or hate it." That was our introduction to Ribolla Gialla. We were at an Italian restaurant in Yerevan, and our friend suggested that we order a bottle of yellow wine (gialla means yellow

EWT Insider: A Wine Lover’s Guide to Budapest

by CHARINE TAN - October 24, 2018October 26, 2018

city guide budapest wine lover gastronomy

Reading Time: "EWT Insider" is meant to be a practical guide for gastronomy travelers. We’ll continue to update this page with every new visit to Budapest, so consider it a work in progress. This guide, compiled over six weeks in and around Budapest, is packed with information about where and

VinNatur: A Proponent of Checks and Balances

Italian Wine

by CHARINE TAN - August 31, 2018January 19, 2019

Reading Time: "You're a really good agriculturist but you're a bad winemaker." Angiolino Maule, La Biancara's winemaker and founder, thinks this statement from oenologist Franco Giacosa might have changed the course of his life as a winemaker. "In the past, I would say a good wine is 90% vineyard and 10% winery. Today, I

Go Cro, Drink Cro: Croatian Wines for FIFA World Cup 2018

Croatian Wine

by CHARINE TAN - July 14, 2018August 11, 2018

fifa world cup 2018 croatia football team

Reading Time: It seems apt to introduce Winery Jerković (pronounce yer-koh-vich) on this day as the Croatia national football team takes on France at the 2018 FIFA World Cup Final in a few hours. Why is that? What do Winery Jerković and football have in common? First: Winery Jerković is located in Imotski, and

The Unlikely Partners: Somlói Wine and Indonesian Stew

Hungarian Wine

by CHARINE TAN - June 30, 2018December 30, 2018

Reading Time: "I wonder if I can say that 'One of the best Pinot Gris I've had is from Somló,' without sounding pretentious." Eva engages in a moment of thoughtful silence. "There's very little Pinot Gris grown in Somló." Yup, I can't. A lesser-known wine country. A lesser-known wine region. A lesser-known (a lesser-planted grape