November the 22nd, 2023 – Croatian wines took home an incredibly impressive nineteen medals at a recently held Chilean wine event.
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, Croatian wines and as such Croatian winemakers achieved excellent success recently. Croatian wines took home as many as nineteen medals – three large gold medals and sixteen gold ones at Catad’Or, the most prestigious wine competition and evaluation of wines and spirits in all of Latin America. The event took place last week in Santiago de Chile, and for the first time ever, Croatia had the status of a partner country at this international wine event.
This year, the 28th edition of the Catad’Or World Wine Awards gathered winemakers from all over the world. In addition to the organisational and financial support of the Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK), sixteen wineries from all Croatian wine regions participated with 48 samples of their various Croatian wines and spirits.
Croatian wines were awarded in a variety of categories
Croatian wines won nineteen medals, which is two more than last year when domestic winemakers participated in the wine competition in Chile for the first time ever. These Croatian wines were awarded in the category of still, sweet and sparkling wines, and half of them refer to native Croatian varieties including Graševina, Pošip, Malvazija and Teran.
“We can be very satisfied with the number of medals won by Croatian wines at this event. Croatian winemakers are marketing more and more top quality wines that keep on finding their rightful places on the demanding international and global wine market. This has also been confirmed by the statistics, according to which wine exports have been increasing over recent years. This is especially true of Croatian wines in the higher price category”, commented the HGK president, Luka Burilović.
Who won what?
Large gold medals were awarded to Graševina Ledeno Vino 2018 (Kutjevo), Genero 2021 (TRS Winery) and Garageist white wine 2016 (Degarra Winery). The winners of the other gold medals were Carmenere 2020 (TRS Winery), Korlat Supreme Cuvee 2013 (Badel 1862), Korlat Syrah 2019 (Badel 1862), Pošip Majstor 2021 (Stina), Belaigra Grand Cru 2020 (Winery Domaine Koquelicot), Korlat Syrah 2014 (Badel 1862), Pošip Riserva 2021 (Baraka Winery), Graševina Vinkomir 2022 (Kutjevo), Maximo Nero 2019 (Kutjevo), Teran Zigante 2021 (Zigante Winery), Chardonnay 2021 (VELEBNA Vineyards & Winery), Vallis Rabiosa Chardonnay 2022 (OPG Stjepan Vučemilović), Graševina De Gotho 2020 (Kutjevo), Primo (Degarra Winery), Festigia Castello 2021 (Agrolaguna) and Graševina 2022 (Kutjevo).
Continuous quality growth
“The medals won in Chile are a further confirmation of the continuous growth of the overall quality of Croatian wines, and the medals for native Croatian varieties represent something special indeed. Competitions like these contribute to the promotion of Croatian wines, as well as to efforts to build a recognisable wine identity on the international wine market,” stated Jelena Đugum, the director of HGK’s Agriculture Department.
1,400 wine samples from seventeen countries
The international wine competition in Chile, which is other the fourth largest wine exporter in the entire world, has been being held since back in 1995. Compared to last year’s edition of Catad’Or, this year more wine and spirits samples arrived in Santiago. A total of 1,400 samples from seventeen countries were evaluated. International experts, 45 of them in total, from six continents, evaluated the presented samples at “blind” tastings, in a process that is fully computerised and carried out according to stringent rules.
