In the beginning it was Ilok Cellars and Belje with bottles with screw-in caps costing thirty or less kuna, with more than reasonable quality for the price. Then came Laguna with its bestseller, Malvazija in a see-through bottle with a screw-in cap in the 30-40 kuna range, over 800.000 sold last year. Then Feravino decided to redesign its basic labels, joining the fight for supermarket bottles with solid quality and low price. This year the market was joined more convincingly than last year by Medea from Vodnjan in Istria, known for a great Merlot Punta Greca and very good Montiron Malvazija.
Medea presented last year a series of wines with screw-in caps, while the excellent 2016 harvest encouraged them become a serious competitor in the fight for supermarket positions and restaurant lists with bottles or around one hundred kuna. Medea’s basic label has a lively design, obviously intended for younger consumers, which is smart. Along with Malvazija, the basic Medea portfolio also has a rose, Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon. Several days ago we tasted the just bottled Malvazija.
It is a fresh, very clean wine with enough varietal character to be recognisable, enough fruit to be attractive to a wider audience and with enough structure to go along with various meals of lighter character: from asparagus, chard, broad bean, spinach and peas, to chicken, prawn and mussels. This Medea Malvazija is a type of wine the great British publicist Oz Clarke names The Drink. They are intended for the wider audience, but still contain the integrity of the terroir and variety. It is especially important for the Croatian wine scene for many such bottles to be found in supermarkets and lower priced restaurants and bars, as good basic labels enlarge the wine culture. Thanks to bottles in the 25-40 kuna range, many consumers can now move from terrible artificial wines in large formats to a significantly better product. Hence the basic labels of Ilok Cellars, Laguna or Medea are not only the suppliers of cash for their wineries, but also significant educators on the Croatian market of alcoholic drinks.
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