Svirce is an increasingly fascinating village, with a surprising amount of international class behind its walls.
The island’s roads go through the heart of some villages, allowing visitors to get an overview of the settlement, while other villages are free of through traffic. Svirce is one such village which one drives by on the way from Vrbanj to Vrisnik. As one drives past, there is the island’s most unusual church on the entrance, a road going up to the heart of the village, a restaurant and a winery. One passes through the outskirts of the village in seconds, and most travellers would think no more of the village of Svirce.
But Svirce is a fascinating village, ripe for discovery.
Our Scandinavian wine buying tour of the island continued yesterday at the Svirce Cooperative, and I was delighted that we were joined by my Total Split partner in crime, Mila, who is also half Scandiwegian and a qualified wine expert in her own right. It was the second visit to the cooperative for me, after I had accompanied Dusan Jelic from Wines of Balkans last year.
Of all the wineries on the island, the Svirce Cooperative is perhaps the one with the most surprises inside. For years I thought that they just produced average quality wines, which were sold locally, but I was in for a shock when I entered their offices. Here is the presentation of their wines to the paying public – medal after medal after medal. London. Germany. France. The list goes on.
And each wine with a story, but today I want to focus on these three, which I will return to in a minute.
Director Andrija took us on a tour of the facilities and then he and Marija guided us through the extensive range that they have. We tried their standard Plavac Mali, Plavac Hvar, which sells for 35 kuna. Mila, who has tried a lot of Plavac Mali in her time, sat back:
“That is the best value of the cheaper Plavac I have ever tasted.” Annual production of Plavac Hvar – 300 – 400,000 bottles.
Each wine at the cooperative has a story. Take the three above. On the left, the first certified organic wine in all of Croatia, back in 2003. An oak-aged plavac mali of such quality that the 2007 (which was sensational yesterday) won organic gold at Bio Fach in Germany last year.
Next to that is the 2005 Petric Selection, a private label for an individual from Ivan Dolac, and one of the top ten red wines in Croatia – the organic barrique is another – as determined by a panel of experts, which are currently on their way to China.
And perhaps the most unusual bottle of all on the right – the late picked grape selection, available only in exceptionally good years, and bottled in half-litres only. Price? 350 kuna, which makes it probably the most expensive bottle on the island. Is it available? No, because the Chinese have bought all that remained of the 2,400 bottles made that year.
So next time you drive past Svirce, stop for a minute and ponder – there is a lot going on behind its walls… Learn more about the Svirce Cooperative – http://www.pz-svirce.hr/
