Wines in Croatia are consumed mostly fresh. There is no harvest hierarchy, nor have wineries developed business models within which it pays to age a wine for many years, sending it to the market when its ripeness is optimal. A rare exception is the exemplary Pelješac winemaker Frano Miloš with his Stagnums. Miloš only released his phenomenal 2003 harvest three years ago, with the 2007 harvest currently on wine charts.
Joining Miloš is Marino Markežić, a respected Istrian winemaker whose brand Kabola, besides Croatia, is sold in fifteen countries, with a noticeable presentation at the international wine show in Warsaw. Coming soon to the Croatian wine scene is the Kabola Terrano 2007. It is Markežić’s way of ringing in 2017 for all Terrano fans.
We had the opportunity to taste his ten-year-old Terrano. It is, in fact, a fascinatingly young wine with a recognizable shiny, purple colour, still eccentrically fresh and has, unusually, preserved much primary fruit aromas and a strong concentration of fruit in taste, while tannins and acids have rounded off, so the wine became unexpectedly elegant.
Most importantly, Kabola’s aged Terrano proved how long and well Terranos can age; it has several years of hedonistic life ahead of it. With this Terrano Kabola institutionalised the option of long aging as an important characteristic of the most important Istrian red variety of grapes.
The Markežić family began producing wine in 1891. Marino Markežić, formerly a successful caterer, began affirming the Kabola fifteen years ago, becoming today one of the more important Istrian wine brands. His vineyards cover twenty hectares in northwest Istria, at an altitude of 275 metres. He insists on ecological cultivation, with certain white wines produced through long macerations as in Kabola they believe Malvasia can yield layered, serious and truly great wines, not just young and fresh wines that are popular today.
Markežić was the first to produce Malvasia in amphorae, while it is interesting the Kabola Amphorae from 2007 was served last year in the legendary French Relais Bernard Louiseau. Patrick Bertrand, a three Michelin star chef, served it with his menu dedicated to classic European wines, with duck foie gras. On the same menu, two meals lower, was the great Angelo Gaja, with his Sito Moresco.
The same year one of the greatest world sommeliers Olivier Poussier, together with the founder of Vins du Monde Claude Gilois, presented Kabola at their annual presentation Grand Crus du Monde, one of the most visited wine events in Paris. Kabola’s terroir clearly gave some excellent grapes in 2007. Hence the arrival of Kabola’s Terrano 2007 is a great event for the Croatian wine scene.
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