Tikveš Smederevka 2025
£9.25
The wine
A pale lemon wine delivering tropical and stone fruit aromas underpinned by a streak of zesty citrus. Beautifully balanced on the palate, with crisp and refreshing fruit flavours through to a clean, vibrant finish.
Smederevka is the traditional white grape of the Balkans, named after the town of Smederevo in Serbia, and it is grown across North Macedonia in quantity. It ripens late and holds acidity well in a continental climate, though it is naturally neutral, which is why a little Riesling is blended in here for aromatic lift. Straightforward, well made and priced at a level that barely registers.
The producer
Tikveš
View all Tikveš winesTikveš has been making wine in North Macedonia since 1885 and is the largest producer in south-eastern Europe, farming around 1,000 hectares in the Tikveš valley in the centre of the country.
North Macedonia is one of Europe's last undiscovered wine countries, which is a surprise given the history: vines have grown here since at least the fourth century BC, and the region supplied wine to Yugoslavia in enormous quantity through the twentieth century, mostly in bulk and mostly anonymously. Independence in 1991 and the collapse of that trade forced a rethink, and the shift towards bottling under its own name has been rapid.
The indigenous varieties are the reason to pay attention. Vranec, whose name means black stallion, is the flagship red, deeply coloured and powerfully structured. Kratoshija is genetically identical to Primitivo and Zinfandel. Smederevka and Temjanika are the native whites, the latter a member of the Muscat family. The valley's continental climate and 260 days of sun a year ripen all of them readily.
