On Tuesday, 20 November, the Bornstein wine shop and wine bar in Zagreb hosted the second edition of the Wine Tuesday event, in collaboration with the Menu.hr website. This edition of Wine Tuesday surprised even wine experts by presenting young winemakers from the Međimurje region. Six winemakers spoke about their wineries and specifically about their young wines. In line with the time of the year and their young age, the whole evening was titled Young Međimurje. The goal was to taste and rate the young wines of the 2018 vintage. They were presented to Bornstein’s guests, sommeliers, restaurant owners and bar owners, as well as media representatives. Everybody agreed that the wines are extremely light, joyful and drinkable, characterized by their minerality, fruitiness and freshness.
The Dvanajščak-Kozol family is one of the younger winegrowing and winemaking families in Međimurje. Continuing the tradition of parents Rajka and Zdravko, they planted their first vines in the period from 1990 to 1992. Rajka, Zdravko and daughter Tea have passed a sommelier exam, and Tea, who is just 16, is the youngest sommelier in Croatia. The family nowadays cultivates eight hectares of vineyards which are located on excellent, sunny and elevated locations near Dragoslavec, under the names Grofovo, Okrugli Vrh and Mohokos. The Mohokos peak is located at 344.40 m above sea level and is the highest point of Međimurje. Tea’s brother Viktor presented Cuvee of two varieties, Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Blanc. Both varieties were harvested mid-September and they are already showing their potential.
The Preiner family is a winemaking family that has been involved in winegrowing for many years. It is becoming increasingly successful and better in wine production. The family is made up of Darko and Štefica Preiner, son Nenad, daughter Ljerka and grandmother Sabina. They plan to construct a new cellar and a tasting room and, of course, to continue producing even better wines. We tasted Silvanac Zeleni, with grapes harvested in early September.
The Cmrečnjak family continues a long tradition of vineyards and winemaking. The first family cellar dates back to 1884 and today it houses the family archives. In addition to the market results, the success of Cmrečnjak family has been confirmed by the experts, since the family regularly participate in national and international competitions, winning an enviable collection of medals and awards. With an expansion of the vineyard, there has been growing demand for the Cmrečnjak quality wines. We tasted Rizvanac, harvested on 21 August 2018.
The Kocijan family cultivates vineyards located in Banfi and Orehovčak and produces excellent white wines Pušipel, Graševina, Chardonnay, Riesling, Sauvignon, Traminac Mirisavi, the Štrigovska Zvona coupage and the Cabernet Sauvignon red wine. We tasted Chardonnay, and the grapes were harvested on 3 September.
The Štampar family wines begin their lives in the vineyards, just like in the old days. They started with just 3,000 vines of one variety, with an old Croatian oak press from 1927 and barely a few dilapidated barrels in a small cellar. Today, in a constant search for the perfect combination of tradition, knowledge and innovation, the Štampars offer extremely high-quality and award-winning wines from a dozen representative varieties of the Međimurje wine area. We tasted Silvanac Zeleni, harvested on 15 September 2018.
The Kunčić family is based in Banfi, in the extreme northwest corner of Croatia. The borderline with Slovenia passes through their yard and the house, and their winery’s terrace overlooks the Slovenian Pomurje region and Hungary a little further away. The cellar and the vineyards are an example of a diligent and careful approach to winemaking and continuous investment, which ultimately results in excellent wines. We tried a Cuvee of Chardonnay, Yellow Muscat and Sauvignon, with grapes harvested on 15 September.
In addition to wines, Bornstein served their famous meat plates, and the event was supported by the Oletić Butchers, with a tradition that has lasted for four decades. It is an ambitious family farm that strives to satisfy demanding customers and offers fresh meat and top-of-the-range meat products, as well as game meat and specialized meat products. Oletić has two butcher’s shops in Varaždin and Šenkovec, and a meat processing facility. With a large assortment of fresh beef, pork, veal, chicken and game meat (roe deer, boar, deer) and cured meat products processed traditionally, it supplies a number of catering facilities throughout Croatia.
The Moravec family farm – once you reach Nova Ves Petrijanečka in Varaždin County, you can follow the signs along the road and easily reach the Moravec family farm. It is a farm with 150 white goats and a dairy plant which produces various products made of goat milk, such as cheeses with colourful pepper and red pepper, spreads with pumpkin seeds and chives, and curd, while the main product is goat milk which is bottled and carries the “Milk from Croatian Farms” mark.
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