The blessing of the vineyard and competition in vine pruning on the Božilovac position marked the beginning of the traditional celebration of St Vincent’s holiday, which brought to the slopes of Krndija over a thousand wine lovers, business partners and guests. The pruning of vines to three buds, adorning of vines with sausages and kulen and splashing of vines with last year’s wine are customs calling upon a fruitful vine growing year.
With a young 2017 Graševina, homemade bacon and Slavonian specialties such as ox on a spit and Slavonian stew, the celebration was memorable, with also a visit to the Feravino cellar in the center of Feričanci. Investments in technology are always ongoing, so there is a new processing unit with two reception baskets and the most modern presses, one pneumatic and two vacuum ones, of global quality and necessary to produce superior white wines. They are equipped with a cooling system and valves for carbon maceration.
Novelties were presented by Feravino chief oenologist Marijan Knežević, who explained the Feričanci winery expanded capacity with five new vinificators for the production of red and maceration of white grapes with a 120 hectoliter capacity and 18 new stainless steel tanks of ten thousand liters each. Each is independent and has its own control box, completely automated. There is also a new isobaric filter for cross flow filtration taking place in inter gas atmosphere. In the beginning of spring Feravino will receive new bottling stations for still and sparkling wines.
“It is a modern plant with three autoclaves for the production of sparkling wine with Charmat or tank method. Until now we produced sparklings with the classic method of fermentation in the bottle, but this is new technology for us,” said Marijan Knežević. The first bottling of sparklings is planned ahead of the tourism season. They also plan to build a new air-conditioned warehouse on the premises. “Feravino winery is part of the Osilovac company, owned by my family, together with the Nexe Group. Although completely separate, the two companies use the same business philosophy, advancement of business processes and investments. Using the Feravino brand, the Osilovac company plans to invest in the tourism offer of Feričanci – accommodation capacities and gastronomy, investments going great with the basic directives of the tourism strategy of Osijek-Baranja County. Osilovac is the most important business entity of the Feričanci area and as such should lead the advancement of quality of life for the local community,” said Ivan Ergović.
