Podravina is the region of Croatia that has not been able to brand and popularize their wines to the extent that some other regions have been doing in the past. So, their inaugural Koprivnica wine fest, taking place today (December 17th 2016) in Koprivnica, as a part of the advent celebrations in the city park is the step in the right direction. Tomislav Zalar and Domagoj Matković, the organizers, explain that the idea behind the festival is to present the wines made by the local winemakers to the public, have the visitors taste their wines and hopefully buy some to offer as part of their Christmas festivities.
The local winemakers participating in the festival are: Matočec, Kostanjevec, Jušta, Ban, Vujić, Koren, Cik and Topolovčan, and several winemakers from all over Croatia are also going to present: Galić from Kutjevo, Stina from Brač, Ivančić from Plešivica and Kurtalj from Jastebarsko. The price of the glass you buy in order to go around and taste all of the offered wines is 70 kuna, and the festival is opening at 6 pm tonight, and is expected to last (at least) until 11 pm. The festival will also attempt to promote local wine roads, and there are a few, unfortunately also less known then some of the wine roads from the neighbouring regions.
The organizers have invited some of the well-known Croatian oenologists to the festival, hoping to start a conversation in which the experts, the winemakers and the public will contribute. That way the public will get introduced with what the local winemakers are offering, and the winemakers will get the chance to find out what the opinions of local public and experts are. And, yes, there will be food offered at the festival, prepared by the promoters from Podravka, one of the largest food companies in Croatia. The music at the festival will be courtesy of the young local duo Lunar Night.
