Tikveš Temjanika Luda Mara 2025
£13.95
The wine
An aromatic dry Temjanika with elderflower, acacia, grape and lime notes. Crisp acidity, light body and a refreshing citrusy finish.
Temjanika is North Macedonia's own name for a member of the Muscat family, closely related to Muscat Blanc a Petits Grains, and the name derives from temjan, meaning incense, for its perfume. Made dry it keeps the grapey, floral aromatics without the sweetness usually associated with Muscat. Luda Mara is the estate's premium range, named after a figure from Macedonian folklore.
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.
