While France has Beaujolais Nouveau, Slovakia has St Catherine's wines.

This warm summer with an early harvest was a blessing for young wine.While Beaujolais Nouveau will go on sale from midnight tonight, the Slovak wine legislation has enabled the selling of young local wines already on November 5.

"Young wine is as charming and attractive as a 16-year-old girl," Milan Kovaacute#269ik of Svaumltokatariacutenskeacute Viacuteno told The Slovak Spectator, adding that young wine must be fresh, clean with fruit and primary flavours. "But youth does not last forever.

"The wine trademark Svaumltokatariacutenske Viacuteno, or St Catherine's Wine, has been the response of a group of wine experts regarding the sales of young foreign wines here in Slovakia. It is similar to an older tradition in the Czech Republic.

There, they have named their young wines after St Martin.Young wineIn order for wines to be labelled young, the bottles must be filled by December 31 at the latest.

Such wines are intended for immediate consumption and do not have the potential to mature in bottles. Wine makers recommend drinking them by the end of February of the following year at the latest.

"St Catherine's is a common brand of winegrowers, which takes care of marketing support and sale of wines with this trademark," said Kovaacute#269ik. "This group is open, and the only condition is to produce high quality young wines of specified varieties.

"These are early varieties such as Irsai Oliver, Muumlller Thurgau or Sauvignon, which are maturing in the middle of the summer. Red wines need to mature a longer time and thus they were excluded from St Catherine's.

The trademark is a quality label and so each young wine to be labelled must meet strict requirements."Not all registered wines have passed through the degustation jury," said Kovaacute#269ik.

"It is very important for us to say that St Catherine's is the best young wine of the season."The commission consisting of three wine experts evaluated the wines on October 23. In addition to the international taster and wine publisher Tibor Vittek as the chairman of the jury, there was Miroslav Jajcay, representative of the Slovak Association of Sommeliers and Marek Zaacutevradskyacute...