Most people don’t know about Blatina, Herzegovina’s workhorse red grape. It and its white partner in wine, Žilavka are by far and away the most heavily grown grapes in this small wine region of Southern Bosnian & Herzegovina. Gradually, more French-y varietals are sneaking their way in and that, is a shame as these two grapes produce wonderful wines from this quite undiscovered region.
It’s true that there are some wineries there that don’t really do much with the grape and they produce what is little more than a basic table wine. Krš (Vinarija Škegro) however makes some of the more higher-end takes on the grape and at reasonable prices. I was reminded up this when tasting an unexpected glass of their Žilavka at Zagreb Wine Gourmet. Later, when picking up a couple of bottles at Vrutak, I came across this very nicely redesigned bottle of Blatina and brought it back to lounge in for awhile.
3 responses to “Krš and the love of Blatina”
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Love Blatina because it has usually low alcohol, it’s not fruity but very mineral. Perfect red for summer, I would chill it to 13 C and drink now instead of shitty roses. Although I tasted maybe two or three bottles, the best one was domestic wine of a family above Mostar that produce it just for themselves. I can get you their name.
I think we tasted about 30 of them when working on the Herzegovina guide. Some were rather basic and the vines were a bit young, but otherwise were really enjoyable. I think that a revisit is definitely in order as these years have probably done nothing but good things to those vines.
Would like to know the name and contact info as someday we hope to update the Herzegovina guide.
Oh and as for non-shitty Rosé, did you try the one that Batič makes? That’s actually very enjoyable.
No, I didn’t try Batič rose but now that I am back in Trieste I think it’s time to visit him one evening, Vipava valley is half an hour drive from where I work on Carso.
The best Croatian rose for me is currently the one from Marinko Sladić, made from Plavina and Lasina. Plavina is a variety that is getting some attention even outside Northern Dalmatia – Clai, the most charismatic Istrian winemaker, makes his first sparkling wine with it and says he will try to do also a still wine from Plavina. Here is the link to Zeljko’s blog, but unfortunately only in Croatian:
http://zeljko-vinskeprice.blogspot.it/2012/06/izlet-u-istru-giorgio-clai-lovac-je.html
Funny, I found also Croatian Zinfandels (Crljenak) like Pribidrag or Vuina very good for summer but that’s only me and it’s expensive sport. Since the vines are still young, they are not complex, there are only juicy red berries so it feels, if the wine is chilled enough, like drinking vodka with mashed blueberries and cherries :)