By Cliff Rames © 2016
Secrets from the cellar of Vuina winery in Kaštel Štafilić: Bottles of Vuina 2010 Plavac Mali Štafileo Barrique at rest, waiting to be sent into the world and into the glasses of happy consumers!
Tag: Plavac Mali
Dalmatia Wine Expo 2016: Three Things I Learned
By Cliff Rames
(Note: I first visited the Dalmatia Wine Expo in Split, Croatia two years ago in 2014. You can read my 2014 “Three Things I Learned” post HERE.)
Drinking wine could be compared to reading a book. Some books, like some wines, serve as mere entertainment, devoid of depth and enjoyed in a moment. Quickly they fade into the past without commemoration or recall.
Great books, though, capture and captivate your imagination. Glued to the page, each word enthralls…every sentence propels you deeper into the folds, eager to know what comes next…how the plot develops…what happens to the characters. The best among them may even influence and affect your life’s journey.
An American Master Sommelier in Croatia
An exclusive interview with Fred Dexheimer, MS
In September 2015, Fred Dexheimer, one of only 230 Master Sommeliers in the world, visited Croatia and spent four days touring the Dalmatia and Istria wine regions. Wines of Croatia recently caught up with Fred (who moves very fast!) for an exclusive interview, in which he reveals his impressions of the trip and expert opinions on the wines he tasted.
Croatia’s Grgić Winery Heavily Damaged During Pelješac Wildfire
Late Monday night, a savage wildfire consumed large swaths of scrub pine, olive and fig trees, and vineyards on the Pelješac peninsula in Dalmatia, one of Croatia’s most renowned wine-growing regions, leaving as many as 600 hectares of rocky landscape–as well as cars and some homes–blackened and charred at the height of the tourist season.
Especially hard hit was the area around the tiny seaside hamlet, Trstenik—home of the world-famous Grgić Vina, a winery founded by legendary—and Croatian-born—Napa Valley winemaker, Mike Grgich of Grgich Hills Estate in Rutherford, CA.
Zinfandel in Croatia: A Sort of Homecoming
(Republished with permission from the original article in the Oct./Nov. 2014 issue of The SOMM Journal)
Croatia’s prodigal grape finds its roots. Can it go home again?
By Cliff Rames
Sherlock Holmes, were he an ampelographer, would be pleased. Solved was an age-old mystery that spanned oceans and continents, the New World and the Old. Through hands-on detective work, forensic know-how and cutting edge technology, the missing link in the evolutionary story of a popular and beloved wine grape was uncovered, the mystery of its origins revealed in a word: Tribidrag – the ancient Croatian name for Zinfandel.
Uncorking Croatia 