Written by Sara Prostran
The Pavlomir Winery is nestled in the Vinodol valley close to the sea, surrounded by a wonderful forest, lately an unavoidable destination for many tourists and visitors of the area. Especially those who enjoy good wine. Winemaking has been around in this area since Roman times, when the valley was known as Vallis Vineria, while today the position is known as Pavlomir, which gave the winery its name.
Although most local WOW members do not live far, many of them found the Pavlomir winery a true revelation, while many did not even know such a wine jewel existed in proximity to Rijeka, certainly becoming shinier each year. The Pavlomir Winery story begins in 1991, with the arrival of the Palinkaš family from Vukovar, operating as part of VUPIK from Vukovar in the beginning, later taken over by the Palinkaš family independently. With their long experience in wine growing thy began to renovate and revitalise the valley known in history by wine, especially in the production of Bakar and Vinodol Vodica.
Today the winery has around 31 hectares of vineyards, a third of which is cultivated with Žlahtina, and indigenous variety in this climate. They claim Vinodol is in fact the first home of Žlahtina, from where it spread onto Krk Island. Krk residents do not agree with this preposition, but this does not matter in this story. What matters is the undoubtable success and rising reputation of the Pavlomir Winery, annually producing 150.000 litres of wine.
Their palette of wines includes Žlahtina, Chardonnay, Muscat, Cabernet Sauvignon, Frankovka, Pinot Blanc, Yellow Muscat and Graševina. The Palinkaš family has in Šarengrad near Ilok some 4 hectares of Graševina which they import and process in Pavlomir. They have won numerous awards for their wines at competitions, including a gold at Vinistra in 2016 for their sparkling 1288. And it was the sparklings that fascinated WOW members, one better than the other! Miroslav Palinkaš welcomed them with three types of sparkling wines. First came the San Marino sparkling, made only from Žlahtina, name after an island outside Novi Vinodolski town. The second sparkling was the superior 1288, named after the year when the Vinodol Code was enacted. It is a coupage of three varieties: 50 percent of Chardonnay, and 25 percent each of Žlahtina and Pinot Blanc, the only sparkling with a number in its name.
The third sparkling was an exclusive: a rosé sparkling wine from the Frankovka variety still not for sale, but soon to be available under the name Ružica Vinodola. Judging by the reactions of WOW girls, there is no doubt it will be recognised by the female side of wine lovers, but also the experts. All sparklings are produced through classic champagne method of fermentation in the bottle, and annual production is around three thousand bottles.
It seems the Pavlomir Winery will become an unavoidable and recognisable name in the segment of sparkling wines. After touring the vineyards, WOW members were invited to visit again in the autumn and help with the harvest, which they gladly accepted. They also viewed the wonderful cellar with barrique barrels from Slavonian oak for the production of Cabernet Sauvignon, and toured the newly prepared store with Pavlomir wines, but also meat products, olive oil, pasta, cakes, chocolates and other products of small family farms from around Croatia. They continued their visit in the recently renovated tasting room.
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