Just a few days ago there was a lot of fervour on the social networks, regarding an inspection sent to Croatian winemaker Klaudio Tomaz at his stand at the Salon VinDel in Maribor; so let me say a few words form a position of someone who attended that day.
What can one say? Sad and pathetic. A decision like this being made in the EU, for one state to be able to protect the name of a sort, such as Terrano, is stupidity in itself, but as my colleague Suhadolnik said – we are plenty ot blame in the matter (meaning politicians who allowed it, not winemakers) and plenty has been written on the topic so no need to repeat. But, for an inspection to be called on a winemaker who is at a wine festival and wants only to present his best wines, even though he knows he cannot sell them in Slovenia, is truly idiotic. I’ve read the comments under Klaudio’s post on Facebook and I must say I don’t agree with many. Firstly, the inspector had to come after receiving a complaint, it’s her job, and to say Tomaz was intentionally invited to the festival for this to happen, is especially stupid. The organiser of VinDel, Dejan Baier and his team from Vinske Brbončice are wonderful people, friends and lovers of wine, both Slovenian and Croatian.
But, what happened happened and how can I explain to our winemakers that VinDel is an excellent wine event? How can I explain to people that Slovenian wines are OK as well as Slovenian winemakers and people around them too? The problem grows, without any real reason. But, what actually happened? The entire mess around Terrano began, probably, from the management of the Kras winery Vinakras; they have enough political influence to bring us to where we are. That same management brought the inspection to Tomaz. Winemakers from stands near Tomaz’s say a representative from Vinakras came to Tomaz’s stand and photographed bottles labelled Terrano Barbarossa, with the inspection arriving shortly thereafter – after a complaint. It’s logically clear to all. The good thing is the reaction of most Slovenian winemakers, who loudly protested such action. It all happened shortly after Croatian journalists left the festival, but as we are told – some very unpleasant words were said to the gentleman from Vinakras, as Slovenian winemakers realised, with simple logic, where the complaint could have come from.
Due to such egocentric characters we come to international incidents. I call on Slovenian winemakers, many of which I especially respect and am friends with: use your associations and power, put pressure on the ministry and government for such a decision to be voided and a joint solution found, as this is not a problem solely of Croatian winemakers, but with such individual acts it becomes everyone’s problem.
Once again, commendations to the organisers of VinDel – it was excellent and we will write about it.
And I promise: with the help of my friends, Klaudio Tomaz and Dejan Baier, we will – eventually – create an evening of Istrian Terrano in Maribor, with all of Istria, regardless of borders, which wine doesn’t have anyway. We are good people so we will also invite the Vinakras people to be our guests. Folks from Kras, make a better wine than Tomaz and then fight! I know this is easier…
For the original and more from the G.E.T. Report, click here.
