Ivica Matošević won at this year’s Decanter World Awards two silver medals, for the nearly excellent white Grimalda 2015 and the Chardonnay Aura 2016, which we haven’t tasted yet. We have been following the Grimalda project form the start, since the early 2000s when Matošević bought the same name abandoned vineyard above Pazin. The goal of the Grimalda cuvee, both white and red, is to express the terroir, not a particular variety of wine processing style.
White wines form the first harvest were extremely successful: we recall, for example, a lunch in the Zagreb restaurant Mostovi, when we offered to their then consulting chef, Bocuse student Jean Marc Tachet, a man with many French culinary awards, several years old white Grimaldas. This chef, a great fan of Burgundy and Alsace wines, was astounded by the freshness, minerality and strong taste of the white Grimalda, produced from Chardonnay, Malvazija and Sauvignon.
The Grimalda 2015 is one of the best to date. It is especially mineral, with a firm structure, almost oily texture, plenty of freshness, but also creaminess, with long tastes of citrus and ripe, but not stifled yellow fruit. The bouquet holds white field flowers and herbal nuances. In the scent, and especially in the mouth, there is a too strong influence of wood, not just through smoke. And this is Grimalda’s only problem, but also a constant problem of most ambitious Matošević white wines (except the truly unique Alba Antika). A slightly different management of wood – this wine was aged for a year in allier and troncais – such as investing in large barrels, would make these good wines excellent. If the wood in white Grimalda 2015 was just slightly less pronounced, it would not be worth 90, but some 95 points, which in Decanter brings a platinum medal.
For the original and more from Plava Kamenica, click here.
