On the first day of March, Zagreb’s famous fine wine shop “Vivat fina vina” crowned around 25 years of operation on the Croatian wine market with the opening of its wine bar. The new bar doubles as a showroom of Vivat’s wine cellars and wine assortment, a place for pleasurable experiences and socializing.
“Vivat Fine Wine Bar” is located at Martićeva 17, directly across one of Vivat’s wine shops in Zagreb. Today, Martićeva is known as one of Zagreb’s most interesting streets, constantly developing and changing. It’s also the main artery of Zagreb’s creative neighbourhood – the Design District.
Vivat Wine Bar was a natural next step of Vivat fina vina’s core business as a wine shop and distributor. The bar carries Vivat’s exquisite, carefully selected assortment: smooth and sparkling wines, dessert and fortified wines from all the Croatian and global wine regions, as well as fine distillates, gin, liquors, rum, and whiskey.
The owner, Boris Ivančić, realized his vision in collaboration with successful architecture studio BIRO (Saša Košuta, Mario Kralj and Dora Lončarić), who, in decorating the interior, faithfully followed the wine theme and the sophisticated atmosphere was accomplished by contrasting warm and cold materials and various different textures in hues of gray and brown. Large wall surfaces are coated with tiles made of Portuguese cork, a material directly associated with wine, and yet to be seen amongst the interiors of Zagreb’s bars. Its natural cognac color makes the space pleasant and warm and thoughtfully matches with the metal and wood furniture.
In contrast, the walls are treated with hand-combed natural cement relief structures, while the bar’s classic detail – a brass profile – highlights the mix of these materials, creating lively accents within the space. The rest of the interior also evokes the spirit of the wine industry. The lighting, as well as most of the furniture, were custom-made for the bar. The hanging lamps above the tables are made of dark, 3-liter wine bottles, in which winemakers typically store their best quality wines. Above the bar, a glowing atmosphere was created by five glass pendant lamps made of old, hand-made Istrian bottles for rakija storage. The only purchased furniture in the bar are chairs by famed Danish brands, Norman Copenhagen and Dutchbone.
“The main idea in launching the wine bar was to create a kind of showroom and tasting room for the rich wine offer that can be found at Vivat fina vina shop, opened in 1993. In that sense, perhaps one of the most challenging tasks was defining the bar’s first wine list. We had to take into account that it was impossible to include all of the interesting wines and drinks that Vivat sells and distributes from its shops. For this reason, we decided that our wine lists will stay flexible and constantly be upgraded so that our guests and wine lovers have the chance of trying from a wider choice. We plan on creating the option of consuming wine bought at our wine shop across the street, for an additional corkage fee for serving in the bar. Soon, we will also offer a special list of exclusive wines from which guests will be able to enjoy glasses with the help of quality wine preservation tools upon gradual dispense.
All drinks are served in top-quality Spiegelau glasses, the world’s most celebrated wine glass production group. Additionally, guests can also enjoy the custom-made Vivat Wine Bar coffee blend from the newly-launched Croatian craft coffee brand, ‘Hug & Punch’. The unique blend was created by one of Croatia’s best coffee experts, Domagoj Trusić. The bar provides a choice of teas by German brand Althaus, highly prized in luxury hotels around the world. As we did not have enough space for a kitchen in our 80-square-meter bar, we will mostly serve cold finger food as a base for savoring our selection of fine wines. In the springtime, the bar will expand onto the street terrace, where there will be an emphasis on refreshing sparkling wines. Personally, I enjoy quieter, pleasant spaces, where you can truly savor noble drinks to the sounds of muffled background music and no smoking. We hope that this bar will be able to offer that kind of atmosphere, where people will be able to unwind, socialize, and toast to special moments,” said Boris Ivančić, owner of the company, wine shop and bar “Vivat fina vina”.
