June 10, 2019 – Association WOW/Women on Wine, popular as „WOW-ice “, is a very active (and pretty large) group of around 200 women throughout Croatia that are involved in promoting wine. Some are wine professionals – sommeliers, oenologists or wine bar owners and others are just wine lovers or wine and lifestyle journalists just like their president and founder, journalist and editor Sanja Muzaferija. Their mission is to constantly encourage young wine producers, especially women, but also give credit and regularly award all wine producers who please their demanding and educated palates.
For eight consecutive years, they give out awards for the Croatian WOW wine of the year in five categories: sparkling, white, rosé, red and dessert wine. The whole process of choosing the best wines is somewhat humorously titled What Women Want and lasts for about two months. Designed by Muzaferija, the selection is everything but lightly taken. It consists of three different steps, the first one being a sort of nomination/pre-selection list. The author of the list is a different renowned Croatian sommelier every year and the duty was previously performed by esteemed sommeliers such as Karin Rupene-Perdec, Alena Stuparić, Siniša Lasan, Mario Meštrović, Roko Bekavac, Jelena Šimić Valentić, and Željko Bročilović Carlos- This time, sommelier Filip Savić was appointed for the job.
The initial selection list always holds 5 sparkling wines, ten whites, five rosés, ten reds, and five dessert/sweet wines. The whole story begins from the initial selection list and after all the members of WOW have had one month to vote by mail, they come up with 12 finalists. The third and final phase of the contest is a blind tasting by three women knowledgeable in wine matters. They are the ones who choose the WOW wine in every category and the one that is being awarded the WOW Grand Prix Wine of the year title – regardless of the colour, price or style of the wine. All five winning wines get a nice sculpture designed by famous designer collective GRUPA, but the main prize of this very well accepted and after 8 years, very well respected choice, is an attractive trip to one of the famous world wine regions, provided and powered by WOW.
So far, the winners travelled all over Europe: Gianfranco Kozlović to Bordeaux, Saša Senjković to Champagne, Moreno Coronica to Barcelona and Penedes, Luka Krajančić to Burgundy, Frano Milina Bire to Austria and the representative of Meneghetti winery took a trip to Tuscany. Last year’s winner, Alen Bibić, declined the trip due to previous engagements. The awards ceremony for the 8th WOW Grand Prix took place, traditionally, in the restaurant Balon in Zagreb. The final jury consisting, naturally, entirely of women, has gathered previously at Jadranka bistro and has spoken their final word. They were: well-known and esteemed sommelier Karin Rupena Perdec as the president of the jury; Ines Matić, sommelier and Doris Srpek of the famous wine shop and wine bar Bornstein.
The wines that made it to the finals are: Sparkling – Blanc de Noir, Peršurić and Pavel, Šember, and the winner is – Blanc de Noir, Peršurić.
White wines: Meneghetti White 2017, Meneghetti; Grimalda white 2015, Matošević and Škrlet 2017, Voštinić- Klasnić – and the winner is the Meneghetti White 2015. In rose wines, the finalists are the Rosella Poletti 2017, Poletti and Rose Galić 2017, Galić. The winner is Rosella Poletti 2017. Red wines: Fuga 2015, Dobravac winery; Santa Lucija red 2015; Kozlović winery and Il Primo 2015, Fakin winery. The winner is Il Primo, Fakin winery. Dessert wines in the finals: Muškat Momjanski, Prelac winery and Graševina izborna berba prosušenih bobica 2015, Krauthaker winery. And the winner is Graševina izborna berba prosušenih bobica 2015, Krauthaker. The overall winner and the WOW Grand Prix new owner is Marko Fakin of Motovun with his Il Primo red wine that instantly gained the star status, not only among women voters. The winner will visit the Hungarian wine region Villany in July. After the awards ceremony – the wine crowd stayed on to celebrate the 8th birthday of the WOW association together with the wine producers who proudly held their WOW „stars“/awards and the media.
Photos of the jury: Silvija Munda
Photos of the ceremony: Rene Karaman
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