Day 6 - We must find wine.

16:00
Max arrives tomorrow, and the need to replenish red wine stocks has hit critical levels. We’ve what counts for a busy day planned. I’ve been sleeping pretty well the past few days. My room is warm, but my small electric hand fan has been doing wonderful things to keep me just the right side of cool enough. We’re both awake with an up and at ‘em attitude in decent time, and heading off to the beautiful lake at Kamenšnica Babinci just before 11:00. The forecast is hot, unbroken sunshine all day.

The small beach by the lake is fairly quiet - a combination of cyclists, fisherpeople, and swimmers. The quiet is very much broken by Juancho, who’s favourite water-based activity is swimming in circles, and barking incessantly. Juancho is very much a traditional, small yapper type dog. Mila is much more withdrawn, and likes less the sound of her own bark. They both have a great time splashing around, chasing their ball. About 45 minutes after our arrival, and family turns up with about 7 young kids. They plonk themselves down next to us. The kids are, well - let’s face it, noisy. They (the kids) also start casting nervous glances at the dogs, who are in full-on play mode, and yapping away. We elect to pack up and move on.

I’ve been in the sun for nearly an hour, so decide to take the car to do some grocery shopping, while Kirsten has some more play time with the dogs. It later transpires she is a little sunburnt, so strong are the sun’s rays today. We meander back through Ljutomer, before turning off onto a stunning country back road that takes us into the heart of wine country. We stop at a winery just outside Jeruzalem. We’re largely on the hunt for red wines for Max’s arrival. I taste 4, and buy one of each. They’re all great, but the standout is a grape with which I’m barely familiar - Vranec. Medium bodied, bright acidity, black fruit flavours. Yum. We reward ourselves with a glass each of white wine - a brilliant Pinot Gris / Sauvignon blend for Kirsten, and a Traminec varietal for me. The views across the valley are sensational, and wine’s pretty awesome as well.

Our next stop is about 3 minutes walk up the hill so a taverna with a wine shop attached to it. We get slightly distracted by the view, and end up having a glass of their flagship white wine, and blend of Chardonnay, Rhine Riesling and Pinot Gris. We’re both a touch peckish, so share a plate of locally made paté and bread. The dogs are both a bit jaded, so decide to try one more winery on our way back to the cottage. Our route takes us further and further towards the middle of nowhere - it’s s stunning drive through forests, valleys, vineyards. Sadly, on arrival it appears the winery is no more. I suspect a fair few of the smaller producers suffered at the hands of COVID. If they are even still growing grapes, I find myself wondering if their crop is given over to co-operative winemaking, rather than the personal financial burden of making their own wines.

We’re back at the cottage a little after 15:30. It’s properly hot, so I treat myself to a dip in the hot-tub. I decide against the jacuzzi bubbles, and there’s no way I’m heating the water up. It’s initially a bit of a system shock, but the cold quickly becomes a wonderfully refreshing cool. I air dry with a glass of wine and my book, and then consider I’ve earnt a nap.

23:00
I wake at 18:00, after a smashing 90 minute sleep. I’m on dinner duties this evening, so gradually mobilise myself to do some prep work. We’re having local sausages braised in red wine, and served with a warm lentil dish featuring flavours of bacon, roasted pepper and sun-dried tomato. I usually use Puy lentils, but only had green available in the supermarket. There’s a small snafu when it transpires I haven’t turned the oven on, but it my oversight corrected, it heats up quickly enough. As a light starter, we have some Gazpacho that Kirsten made earlier. The tomatoes are from the veg patch at the cottage, and are some of the best I’ve ever eaten. SO ripe, SO juicy, SO full of flavour. They are also, of course, all kinds of weird knobbly shapes and sizes. I don’t know that this actually mades a difference to their flavour, but it reminds me how sad it is to see utterly uniform fruit and veg in the supermarkets back home.

Kirsten declares my sausage and lentil dish a triumph. It’s really tasty - something I’ve cooked a bunch of times before, but very rarely as lentils don’t agree with my beloved wife. After we’ve eaten, we settle into an easy post-prandial patter of conversation. I think one of the reasons Kirsten and my friendship has endured so easily over the years is that we never run out of things to talk about, but are equally happy sitting in silence, without the need to fill the void. It makes for easy-going days. Around 22;00, we’re both starting to flag. I declare I’m not long for this day, and head to bed.Leia mais