“Wonderful! I would say a čobanac (Slavonian meat stew) is its best friend or even lover,” excitedly reacted Ivo Kozarčanin, renowned Croatian wine critic, after tasting the Frankovka Miraz 2012 by Feravino, Slavonian producer known for its superior red wines.
“On the first nose are wooden barrel and bacon, which probably comes from the wood too. As the wine is opened, spices spread, red pepper, while bacon is gone… The taste has alcohols well blended, without really feeling the 14.5 percent. Lovely fruity, dominated by a very ripe sour cherry, while the pleasant acids give wonderful freshness,” continued Ivo to describe this unique wine.
It was love at first taste, so Ivo Kozarčanin didn’t take much convincing to prepare and run an original workshop, held at the 11th VINOcom, an international festival of wine and cuisine in the Zagreb hotel Esplanade, thrilling forty wine lovers.
Red Treasure of Slavonia – Miraz Label Wines was the title of the workshop which hinted only the best from Feravino will be on show.
Starting the magical journey into the world of red wines was the Young Frankovka 2016, fruity, soft and fresh, strong and lively sour cherry colour with purple tones that reflect its youth and precision of technology.
For connoisseurs
Excellent wine connoisseurs at the blind tasting of intriguing title “Fifth Element – Earth, Water, Fire, Air, Leeloo,” attempted to discover what the wines were. With more or less success, but always with equal excitement for all of five offered wines. Epithets such as – interesting, fascinating, excellent, powerful, thunder – were common at this workshop.
For travellers and adventurers
At the “World is my Oyster” event, a spectacular tasting of wines followed in paraphrasing Shakespeare’s statement “I can do it all.” French Merlot, Austrian Frankovka, Australian Syrah, New Zealand Pinot Nero, “space Cabernet Sauvignon” are varieties which gave excellent results in Feričanci town.
For wine lovers
A full and strong Merlot Miraz 2012, deep scent and fruity character, blended perfectly with a young cow cheese. With the mighty Frankovka Miraz 2012 from the beginning of this article, of intense and long lasting taste, was served a goat cheese; with the dense and warm Syrah Miraz 2012, a cow cheese with red peppers; with the interesting Pinot Nero Miraz 2012, a cow cheese with truffles. The strong Cabernet Sauvignon Miraz 2012, called the king of red wines and wine of energy, went along with two years old cow cheese.
“For example, if you cover goat cheese with pumpkin oil and cow cheese with honey, the experience of these wines is even more intense,” said Rene Bakalović, gastronomy expert who chose the cheeses for this story. Wine lovers will surely have in their collection at least one of these five red wines, ideal for special occasions in the coming holidays, but also intimate moments of relaxation and enjoyment.
We are happier, but are we smarter?
Nothing less was expected from Feravino, the most awarded producer from the heart of Slavonia, whose team was joined this year by Marijan Knežević, one of the best Croatian enologists.
“The tasting of these superior wines proved that varieties planted in ideal positions give excellent results. All of these five wines in their aromatic profile have 70 percent joint characteristics, which they can thank the extremely warm 2012. On the other hand, the so typical Merlot or strong Cabernet Sauvignon were easy to recognise,” Marijan concluded.
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