Dalmatia Wine Expo is a wine festival held in Split (and an informal gathering is held in Makarska), the largest wine festival in Dalmatia and a central venue for the wine-lovers in the region. Usually taking place in April and the informal beginning of the full tourist season in the region, the festival will be held for the eighth time in early 2017. Two venues where the festival is held mark two somewhat different ideas behind the festival: Split happening is dedicated to the business of making and selling wine, while Makarska a week later is basically a two-day party.
In Split the focus is on the business aspect of wine, bringing together sommeliers, winemakers, restaurateurs, caterers, chefs, distributors, exporters and specialized journalists and wine bloggers. In 2016 over 70 winemakers participated and well over 200 wines were waiting to be sampled and compared, and the festival is probably going to grow in the next year. Several very informative and entertaining seminars follow the wine-tasting expo that are usually very well organized and attract a lot of attention. In 2016 they included a personal view of the potential of Hvar wines by Jo Ahearne Master of Wine, review of the Dalmatian plavac mali vintages by Saša Špiranec, and a guided tasting of the sparkling wines of Croatia by Kruno Filipović etc. Stars of the Kitchen, a dinner made by five top chefs from five top Split restaurants is offered in the evening at the affordable price, paired with excellent wines from offered at the festival. In the past the Perfect Match event was held, where a wonderful meal by one of the best Croatian chefs is paired with various wines and the perfect match is found.
In Makarska, where the festival has originated before it grew too big for the small town and had to move to Split, a week after the Split official program the entire centre is turned into a gastronomy and wine stage, with live concerts by various bands and wine tastings by most winemakers that were present in Split the week before. In addition, each year an award is given in memory of the festival’s founder Milan Ožić, to the person who is recognized as giving an outstanding contribution in shaping the wine scene in Dalmatia. So far, it was awarded to Zlatan Plenković, Meri Šilović, Miljenko Mike Grgich, Ivica Kovačević and Frano Miloš.
Visit the official website here.
