Plastovo is a village 5 km away from the town of Skradin and on the border of the Krka national park, and it’s a village that has shown that small villages can have more than one successful winemaker at one time. Vina Sladić is a family winery, as we’ve gotten to expect from wineries in Croatia named after the last names of their owners, and the family has been growing vines and making wines for the past several hundred years. However, the youngest generation of winemakers has taken the winery over, and these Ante has taken the winemaking business over from father Marinko.
He modernized the methods and technology used to make their wine, but what they’ve kept is the vineyards in the hills above Skradin, where on their 4 hectares they still grow four indigenous grape varieties debit, maraština, lasina and plavina. In 2015 they added the newcomer to their vineyards: tribidrag, a variety not traditionally grown in the region, but one that might produce excellent results there – so let’s wait and see, it’s going to take a few years. Their vineyards are on the ideal position for those varieties, at the altitude of around 250 m and a lot of sun during the summer days, but the vines also enjoy the fresh nights thanks to the microclimate created by proximity of the Krka River and the mountains. That way, even with all the sun, the grapes manage to keep all that precious acidity and aroma, while at the same time, producing the sugars they need to have to make into great wines. And, the soil in their vineyards is such that the wines have wonderful refreshing mineral quality, which is rare for wines from that region.
Their debit is probably among the best ones in Croatia, showing full potential of what the variety can be when treated as it deserves. Lasina is even rarer than debit, an old variety that was not believed capable of producing great wine – and Sladić and other winemakers in the region have proven that belief to be wrong, as their lasina is great and has great potential of becoming even better with time. It is also blended with plavina in their rose cuvee, but also in a red matured in oak for 12 months to give a very serious, yet quite refreshing red wine. Their success was confirmed this year, when they managed to export quite a large quantity of their wines to California,
The family has a wonderful cellar where they’re happy to welcome guests for tastings (lead by one of the young winemakers), food and wine matching sessions (both available with previous appointments), and in the cellar you can also taste and buy some of their olive oils and liqueurs.
