This year we have two premiere tastings of young wines. The first was on February 8th, 2016 and included primarily young Graševina and Pošip sorts, but others as well. No Istrian Malvazijas, to be offered in seven days. I arrived to the event with the intention to try primarily so-called “small” winemakers. Let’s get started…
The wine that thrilled me the most was a Grey Pinot from Kolar cellars. Fantastically built wine with a small sugar residue, but plentiful acids, keeping it in great balance. It’s still a bit hazy and “working”, but it will be one of the greatest wines of this year. Special attention must be given to the Jagunić cellar from Plešivica. The younger Jagunić (son) is increasingly in the lead role in the family cellar and he’s getting better at it. I like the way he thinks. For example, the macerated Grey Pinot, still needing a little work (time being the biggest factor) will be an excellent wine and as far as I’ve heard, has roused interest in Dubrovnik. Red wine lovers, make sure to visit Jakovac winery. Year after year they create excellent red wines and have a great future ahead. I would like to single out the Stina winery, with possibly their best Pošip ever this year, but the Vugava knocked me out of my shoes. That is sheer perfection! Papak winery, with a strong taste of botrytis in their Graševina, presented a different face of Graševina, which the broader public may not appreciate, but I was overwhelmed. In the end I will mention the Red Veltliner from Robert Braja’s workshop – this wine thrills me each year. There were other great wines, but from the likes of Krauthaker, Perak, Belje, including Ivana Puhelek and say, Galić, nothing less than great is to be expected. Naturally, I couldn’t taste all of them, so there may still be a wine that is excellent, but I just couldn’t get around to it. Therefore: tour the wineries, there’s always something new.
A bit about the organization. If En Primeur has to be held in the Esplanade – although I believe that’s wrong, as the lighting is quite bad, temperature too high and the ventilation needs work – but if it must, then at least spread the winemakers into at least two halls. This way we were crowded and the environment wasn’t ideal for wine tasting. Yes, it’s nice to see people we don’t meet too often. Hanging out is nice, as the wine world is always positive, but this is not a wine festival. Tasting young wines should be upfront, which needs better conditions. The story should go this way: from 2 to 5 p.m. the tastings are geared for professionals – restaurant owners, sommeliers, wine press and those who are intensively into wine, such as professor Dropuljić, but what we encountered in that period was something else completely. There were visitors who were miles from being wine professionals. Gentlemen in the organization, a little order would do us all good.
The shining part of En Primeur, according to me, was meeting many young sommeliers that I usually meet at competitions, such as Siniša Lasan, Mario Meštrović, Darko Lugarić as well as the less known Ivan Maljevac. They all approached the tasting with care, wrote down their notes and believe me, wine charts have been started at this En Primeur. This young group of sommeliers is increasingly present at the creation of wine charts as well as at wine sales, which is fine. The way it should be; vocation above everything. This fact gives me hope for a better wine tomorrow.
Original article in Croatian here.
