Erdevik and the Keys of St Peter - Sebastian Morello sings the praises of Ex Cathedra sauvignon blanc

It turns out I have a man on the inside, an up-and-coming sommelier at Highbury Vintners who was pleased to send me some very interesting wines from the Erdevik Estate in Serbia. The young man in question had caught the wino’s bug not only from drinking a good many fine wines, but due to his careful study of Roger Scruton’s I Drink Therefore I Am, a book that Scruton once described to me personally as, “a significant work of mystical theology.” It was largely in gratitude to Scruton that my friend wanted to send some exquisite wine to me, one of Scruton’s last research students, and he found me ready to take on the duty.

In the post arrived two bottles. I want, though, only to focus on the white wine, the Sauvignon Blanc, 2019—wonderfully named Ex Cathedra. To explain its curious name, we’ll have to entertain a small historical digression.

Marcus Aurelius Probus, born in what is now Serbia, became Roman Emperor in 276 AD. Being a wise ruler with a clear understanding of what his priorities ought to be, Emperor Probus immediately initiated a schema of planting vineyards throughout his empire. He never forgot his native land, and as Edward Gibbon wrote in Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire:

“Probus exercised his legions in covering with rich vineyards the hills of Pannonia, and two considerable spots are described which were entirely dug and planted by military labour. One of these, known under the name of Alma Mons, was situated near Sirmium, the country were Probus was born, for which he ever retained a partial affection and early recognised its vine growing potential.”

The vineyards of Sirmium remained much treasured by the Roman Emperors, an affection that continued after the baptism of the Pax Romana. But in time the shadow of the crescent moon darkened the east, and finally the Ottoman infidel marched over those vines and into the heart of the Empire, eventually besieging Vienna in 1683. The

Ottoman ambition seemed unbreakable, and after a month of raining havoc upon Vienna, it looked as if the city would be theirs. On the 12th of September, the Anatolian throng made a final push, smashing the city’s walls and killing its people from 4am and continuing the onslaught through the day.

By early evening, the Ottomans were ready to enter and take the city in the remaining daylight. Then, up on the hillside above Vienna, there was a sight unlike anything witnessed since the prayer of Elisha revealed that, “the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire” (2 Kings 6:17). Those Ottomans heard and felt the thundering of thousands of hooves shaking the earth. They looked up to see the largest cavalry charge in history: 18,000 horsemen, led by 3,000 Winged Hussars, all following the bellowing war cries of that titan, Jan Sobieski, King of Poland. Down the hillside raged this avalanche of centaurial warriors, utterly obliterating the unbelieving horde at the city walls.

This great moment in our history, however, never would have occurred had it not been for Benedetto Odescalchi, now better known as Pope Blessed Innocent XI. He had begun to create what became the Holy League, a coalition of Christian lords founded on the alliance between the Holy Roman Empire, the German principalities, and the Kingdom of Poland, whose sole purpose together would be to rescue Christendom. Innocent gave millions of scudi to the war fund, to expel the armies of Islam entirely from Europe.

In gratitude to Pope Innocent, the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I gifted to the House of Odescalchi the Serbian province of Syrmia, a region covered— thanks to Emperor Probus—with vineyards. From that time, the Erdevik Estate has borne the papal insignia, the Keys of St Peter. And in 1826, a certain Count Livio Odescalchi established there the winery that exists today.

It is not just the extraordinary history of this winery that makes its wines so special. As a rule, I cannot bear sauvignon blanc. Generally, I find it sour and tart. The advocates of this ancient grape have attempted to convince me of its virtues with expensive examples from New Zealand, but with little success. Erdevik’s delightfully named Ex Cathedra, 100 percent sauvignon blanc, astonished me. It isn’t tart, but tangy. Any possibility of sharpness is subdued by the dominant flavours of peach, apricot, passionfruit, and vanilla, with a fantastic floral bouquet that made its consumption almost euphoric. In one sweep, my prejudices were wiped away, as this bottle demonstrated what sauvignon blanc is capable of—hitherto unknown to me. Whilst avoiding all sourness, this wine is both crisp and complex. From its limestone minerality, it has all the pureness of a newly defined dogma, making this wine both serious and fresh, and requiring attention. It’s not a drink to be swigged while wandering about at a summer garden party. Rather, this wine should be sipped in a contemplative relation with it, and as the name suggests, from a chair.