Late Thursday afternoon was devoted to the company of Vlado Krauthaker in Agava Restaurant in Zagreb. Krauthaker truly is one of the few architects of modern Croatian winemaking, whose reputation is unsullied in the last quarter century. Hence it is logical that Agava was completely full. It is especially impressive that so many people from the Zagreb wine and catering business came to greet Krauthaker on a day when the city was full of interesting events related to wine.
Tasting of Krauthaker’s new wines began with the 2016 Grey Pinot. Grey Pinot is the second most represented Krauthaker variety behind the Graševina, with around 50.000 litres per year. It is interesting that Krauthaker sells most of his Grey Pinot in the Adriatic. Afterwards we tasted the excellent Vidim Sauvignon from the same harvest.
Sauvignon Vidim established the criteria some fifteen years ago for the quality and style of Croatian Sauvignons. The harvest before the last, however, seemed somewhat fat and without life. The new Vidim is an excellent, elegant, vibrant wine with plenty of freshness, strong green scents and moderate 12.5% alcohol. It is a great summer wine, which can live much longer than one season. Graševina Korija is ripe, fruity and powerful; this Graševina demonstrates all the advantages of the 2016 harvest during which the grapes truly reached an optimal, savoury ripeness. It is one of the best Krauthaker Graševinas in the last several years.
The last wine for tasting, Chardonnay Rosenberg, was also the most impressive. Strictly looking at style, it is an old-fashioned, barrique, wide Chardonnay. However, the strength of the primary fruit aromas and the vicious, very fresh, almost Chablis structure, make this wine a potential classic. It is still very young. It surely needs at least two to three years to develop. But, Rosenberg 2015 is already among the best white wines on the Croatian market. Vlado Krauthaker is a deserving classic of the Croatian wine scene, whose value is surely recognised abroad: at a recent dinner of Romanee Conti in the Bordeaux wine museum La Cite du Vin, six wines of this most valued Burgundy winery were offered, followed by the Krauthaker Graševina, a selection of dried grapes from 2012. The largest recognition for any winemaker.
But, Vlado Krauthaker continuously works on his wines. The 2016 harvest and the 2015 Chardonnay are visibly fresher and more elegant that bottles from earlier harvests. After a truly triumphant promotion in Zagreb, Krauthaker is beginning an Adriatic tour soon.
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