The wine scene of Croatia is rich, propulsive and lively. The number of wine labels on store shelves is constantly growing, the number of wineries and wine merchants also, wine lists in restaurants often offer a serious dissection of the domestic and global offer, tastings and promotions are always available, several schools and courses for wine education are active, wine tourism is on the rise. Such a good trend is due primarily to individuals who are behind all those activities, together with wineries, associations, publishers, scientists and many entrepreneurs from all areas of the economy, from trade to production. This year Römerquelle and Vinart founded an award for annual achievements to recognise those who deserve to be recognised.
A committee was compiled from an equal ratio of renowned wine and gastro journalists, as well as sommeliers of the most respected Croatia restaurants, in order to represent the wine market and rate which individuals and their successes especially contributed to the development and affirmation of good wines.
This past Thursday at an event at the Sheraton Hotel the chosen persons and companied were awarded recognitions for their contribution to the development of the wine culture, trends, safeguarding wine tradition, affirming moderate consumption, enticing wine science, promoting wine quality, as well as other activities on the wine scene of Croatia.
Awards were given out in 8 categories, four of them for traders, four for wineries. The traders choice was the duty mostly of sommeliers, who are their closest associates, and their decision is as follows: webshop of the year is Vivat Fina Vina, wine store of the year is Bornstein, supermarket of the year is Vrutak, and title of the wholesale distributor of the year went to Miva & Mohor.
Achievements of wineries were separated into regions, so the best one in Slavonia and Danube Region is run by Jasna Antunović Turk, whose Graševina Premium 2013 won a platinum medal at this year’s Decanter, the largest global wine rating.
The Tomac winery, whose Amfora sparkling was listed last year among the 75 most important wines in the world, leads the Croatian Highlands region.
The winemaker who built a whole new perception of Pošip as a variety and crucially influenced the modernisation of Dalmatian white wines, Luka Krajančić, received the award for the Dalmatian region.
Continuous excellence in the production of Malvazija, Teran and Muscat, confirmed with two IWC trophies and a Decanter platinum, brought the Istrian award to the Benvenuti winery, but also the overall Römerquelle Winery of the Year award.
The Römerquelle Person of the Year is Tomislav Tomac, credited as the most deserving for the progress and profiling of Plešivica as the Croatian champagne region, initiator of the trend of orange wines from amphorae.
Organiser and initiator of the awards project is the Vinart company, dealing with the organisation of festivals and workshops, publishing of wine publications and creation of campaigns. “Everything we do has a goal to advance the culture of wine, hence we started this project so we award those who deserve it,” said Vinar Director Saša Špiranec.
