Croatian Wine Descriptions

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Wine has been produced in Croatia since at least the 5th century BC, with Greek settlers who produced wine from local grapes. Since then it has played an important role in daily culture. Production expanded with the Romans, who built a still-existing temple to the wine god Bacchus in Porec in Istria, the northern coast. A hill in Moslavia in the north was named Mons Claudius to honor the Emperor, who planted many vineyards there. As Christianity spread throughout Europe during the Middle Ages, Croatia wholly embraced the movement. As a result, vineyards were protected during the Ottoman rule because Muslim law made allowances for sacramental wines. Such was the significance of wine that a 1407 statue in Korcula has an inscription stating that landholders will lose their profits and have their right hand cut off for neglecting vineyards! Phylloxera devastated the thriving industry in the late 19th century, as it did in most of the world. World War II and subsequent political struggles kept wine efforts at bay. But since Croatia’s official independence in 1991, focus on quality production has seen a significant expansion.

White wines dominate most of the northern regions. Important local grapes are the white Grasevine (Welschrielsing), Grk, Posip, and Vugava. The grape Bogdanusa is so easy to grow and maintain that its name literally means “Godsend.” The south is known for its red wines from Plavac Mali, Refosco (of Italian origin), Frankovka, and Crljenak Kasteljanski, which is one and the same as American Zinfandel. The requisite international varieties have become popular as blending components and single varietals such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, Barbera, Syrah, Cabernet Franc, Riesling, Sylvaner, Chardonnay, and Sauvignon Blanc.

The two main regions are mostly inland and coast indicators, with several subregions within them. Kontinentaina Hrvatska refers to wines produced in inland areas while Primorska Hrvatska are the wines produced in coastal areas and surrounding islands.

Some of the main wines out of Croatia:

*The first official Croatian appellation is the red Dingac, official since 1961, from Dubrovnik.

*White Zhlatina, from the village of Vrbnik in Krk Island.

*The red Postup from Peljesac Peninsula.

*Red Babic from Sibenik in northern Dalmatia.

*White Vugava from Vis island.

*White Malvazija (Malvasia) from Istria.

*Sparkling Prosecco style wine made from the Bogdanusa grape.

– Description from Amanda Schuster

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Find out more on Croatian winemakers http://www.designer.com.hr/en/content/restaurants/restaurants/croatian-winemakers/istrian-winemakers/ – Description from croatian

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Croatia is a land of sun and wine! Rarely is that the country can boast such a diversity of terrain, climate, soil and other factors which significantly affect the noble drops of wine. In the world there are five wine-growing areas by the sum of sunshine hours and temperature. Croatia has each of these five zones, and the world's first wine-growing nation, France - four! The result is a sumptuous mosaic of wine, a fine fresh, aromatic and fragrant white and predicate in the north, to the strong and full in the south. Croatia has about 58 000 hectares of vineyard area, while the privately owned only about 12 000 hectares. Registered approximately 350 producers who annually produce 700,000 hectoliters of wine.Offering more than a thousand different wine labels, of which 900 with the protection and control of geographical origin.White wine covers two thirds of production, black one, and rose are produced in negligible quantities. The labels are marked as a top with controlled geographic origin (5 percent of total production), quality with controlled (by 55 per cent) and table wines (40 percent). In Croatia can be found about 230 different grape varieties, of which 60 indigenous. – Description from Belly

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