Modern wineries now produce dozens of varietals in almost every part of Croatia.
Vina Croatia
My lack of familiarity with Croatia’s wines is not my fault, because, despite 130 different labels now imported in the U.S., they are not easy to find in most wine shops for one simple reason: the Croatians drink most of it themselves; 95% of production stays in country, so producers have no trouble selling it at home.
So on my recent trip to Croatia this spring I drank only Croatian wines and visited several wineries. I had the good luck to be in the city of Split when a Festival Vino Dalmacije featuring scores of wines from Dalmatia––one of the principal production regions, along with Istria and Kvarner, Croatian Highlands, Slavonia and Danube. Dalmatia has 41% of all registered wine producers and growers in the country, and I was amazed at the varieties I tasted, including Syrah, Merlot, Chardonnay, Pinot Crni (Pinot Noir), Plavina, Babić, Debit, Maraština, Plavac Mali, Traminac, Tribidrag, Poŝip, Dubrovačka Malvasija and Grk, among 198 registered varietals. A few of these are exported to the U.S. include labels like Bibich, Black Island, Château Mario, Grgić, Rizman and Stina. Zinfandel has, in fact, been shown to be a parent of Zinfandel, which in Croatia has long been known as Crljenak Kaŝtelanski, once a minor varietal, now a major one. (The best source in the U.S. is Croatian Premium Wine.)
Many Croatian wineries lie along the Dalmatian coast on the Adriatic Sea,
John Mariani
Unlike some other eastern European wines from Georgia, Rumania, Bulgaria and Russia, which tend to be dense and often inky, the wines of Croatia can match the finesse, balanced tannins and acids and specificity of terroir you readily find in Italy and, to an increasing extent, in Greece. For more than 3,800 years wines have been produced in Croatia, back when its inhabitants were known as Illyrians, and cultivation by Greeks, then Romans, improved quality with better viticultural techniques and plantings. Like many European vineyards, Croatia’s were devastated in the late 19th century by the phylloxera infestation, then Croatia became part of the post-World War I Balkan countries under the socialist regime of Yugoslavia, with its communal vineyards were under the control of the government. Yugoslavia broke up in 1991 and Croatia became independent and entrepreneurial. Even so, it wasn’t really until the first decade of the present century that new, independent wineries began to flourish.
In Apreil a Festival Vino Dalmacije in Split showed off scores of Dalmatian labels.
John Mariani
Today, along with tourism, ship, building and seafood, wine production has become a major industry, and since seafood is so important and widely consumed, Croatia’s white and rosé wines like Posip, Maraština and Debit, with lovely minerality and alcohol of about 12.5%, go very well with its abundance of fish, crustaceans and mollusks.
Agrotourism is widespread in Croatia and at Kastel Sikuli you may enjoy a multi-course feast … More overlooking their hillside vineyards.
John Mariani
Agrotourism is soaring now––in fact tourists now exceed the number of people living in the entire country––with 50% of the wineries open for public tastings. At one of them, Kastel Sikuli, you may enjoy a multi-course feast (three courses €50, four €105 and six €55) in a glassed-in dining room overlooking their hillside vineyards, where I enjoyed a shrimp tartare starter; then dried hake with caviar and a cheese foam; and lamb with pasta in a reduction of red wine. The white wine was and blend of Pošip and Chardonnay, and the red a blend of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon.
Monika Provic, CEO of Prović Winery and director of the Wine of Dalmatia Association.
John Mariani
There are also many wine bars with food in the cities, including MonNIKa’s, close to the Adriatic Sea in Split, owned by Monika Prović, CEO of Prović Winery and director of the Wine of Dalmatia Association. There I had an array of tapas, charcuterie and cheeses (€60) with her family’s wines made in Opuzen that included a Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon blend, a Naron Chardonnay and a native varietal named Liviya, named after the wife of Emperor Caesar Augustus.
As I’ve written in previous columns, Croatia is well worth visiting for its natural beauty and history, but it is exciting now to eat and drink at the beginning of an time when its wine industry is truly getting under way thanks for family-owned wineries and new blood. Now if they can only increase production and export more out of the country, we can all appreciate the fruits of their labors.