The wines of Dalmatia, Croatia are not terribly well-known and until I wrote a book about them in 2007, I didn’t fully have a grasp of them either despite first tasting them back in 2004. But, to back up a bit for those not readily familiar with the wines of this corner of the world, there are essentially three zones: Northern (from the city of Split up), Southern (Split down to Dubrovnik), and the Islands (including Hvar, Korčula, Brač, Vis, Šolta, Lastovo, and others.) Naturally, there are micro-climates within each of these regions (Konavle and Pelješac near Dubrovnik differ wildly from one another) and the islands can vary a good deal from one another but this is overall scope of the region.
The grapes are generally quite foreign sounding to English speakers. Reds such as Plavac Mali, Dobričić, Crljenak Kaštelanski (Zinfandel), and Lasin don’t roll off the tongue. Neither do the whites such as Debit, Pošip , Rukatac/Maraština, and Prč. If these aren’t ringing any bells, don’t feel any shame as most sommelier training courses sum up wines in Croatia as, “There is a great deal of production but little of it reaches our markets” and those who have been working to promote the wines in the US and UK have oft found themselves dragging a mule up a mountain, in the middle of summer. It’s one thing to sell people on an unfamiliar region, but unfamiliar grapes is doubly hard although thankfully a more curious generation of wine drinker is emerging.
A lot of this was then compounded in the fact that Croatian wines use “Stolno”, “Kvalitetno”, “Vrhunsko” and the rarely seen “Arhivo” to designate “Table”, “Quality”, “Premium”, and “Archive” wines. This is a throwback to Yugoslavian times and, in addition to making no sense to anyone from outside the country, a lot of good wines were being banned from sale as they didn’t pass the organoleptic tests by a panel in Zagreb who decides what a wine should taste like from a specific region and if it didn’t, no certification.
When I first started tasting these wines a decade ago, Plavac Mali was the king of red wines and it was an extracted, new oak-aged king at that. The wines were potent. Some of them I quite liked such as the Zlatan Otok Grand Cru and others well, they fell a bit short. The Zinfandel vines that had been replanted as the grapes was all but extinct prior to the discovery at UC Davis in California.
Oak was everywhere in the early aughts. As Croatia doesn’t have a functional appellation system the word “barrique” on a bottle was often used to designate a wine of higher quality. Thus everything went through barrel aging whether it should or should not have and many should not have such as the a great many of the white wines that were smothered in French vanilla perfume to the point where if tasted blind you could have thought it to be a mid-1990s California Chardonnay.
Tied in to this were other problems in that brett was rampant in many cellars and not in a fun, touch of funk kind of way. The cooperatives weren’t helping either as winegrowers were ditching them in droves to start their own ventures as collectivism had ended with the fall of Yugoslavia. Thus they were producing cheap, oblivious, tourist-centric wines to pay the bills after privatization.
But, despite all of this, things were changing. Many saw the region as having great potential. Grapes such as the Plavac Mali from Dingač were excellent and great wines just made themselves from that region. Many winery owners started investing heaving in modernizing their old family cellars. Some brave exporters saw opportunities and this too changed fortunes a great deal to the point where there are now several regional fairs in Dalmatia. I was able to catch up with the current wine trends at this year’s sixth edition of the Dalmacija Wine Expo.
It best to start with the stalwarts, namely the red grape, Plavac Mali and the white Pošip. These two have managed to get the most traction outside of Dalmatia for the simple reason that they are both suited well to the climate. Plavac Mali is the result of a cross between the grapes, Dobričić and Crljenak Kaštelanski (aka Pribidrag, Tribidrag, Primitivo and of course Zinfandel) and it has become the dominate red in the region. Pošip had the region thrust upon it as Yugoslavia mandated that it be heavily planted on the island of Korčula and it has managed to do quite well.
One of the main problems for Plavac Mali is that it’s all over the map currently in terms of style. When at its tastiest, it typically holding dark fruits, menthol, eucalyptus, it can be problematic to vinify as the maceration periods are relatively short of 10 days or less. To counter this, many wineries due rigorous barrel regimens to boost the body.
The reds of Stina on the island of Brač can drift towards this and while the labels are quite elegant, the wines inside can be incredibly big. This probably also has to do with their having quite young vines and this has been an attempt to flesh out the wines. The newer vintages are showing an admittedly softer oak profile and it’s something that I hope continues.
On the peninsula of Pelješac the winery of Saints Hills has in operations for a couple of years now and was started by industrialist Ernest Tolj using the advisement of Michel Rolland. The initial wines were not received well. Their star wine from the sub-region of Dingač was constantly criticized as being Parkerized and nothing more than new French oak notes that were smothering what could have otherwise been a good wine.
Four plus years have passed since this initial vintage and the Dingač remains the same. Everyone I talked to at the fair called it a thin, lacking wine. It admittedly didn’t do much for me either but the real surprise was actually another one of their wines, the Sveti Roko which has truly come in to its own with quite elegant mineral notes and herbality that isn’t often seen in wines makes from the Plavac Mali grape. Still a large wine on the palate, it takes a step back and presents itself with a great deal of elegance.
Then there are other wineries who have started producing quite approaching, pleasing bottles of Plavac Mali such as Korta Katarina, Vujnović (especially from the subregion of Ivan Dolac on the island of Hvar), Senjković, Stina, Markus, and Rizman. This last one is interesting as they’re one of the few producers of Plavac Mali with vineyards situated a touch to the interior and as such it’s gone a long way to lend more depth and subtlety to their wines.
When it comes to Pošip, I’ve always felt that the various barrel treatments given this wine were a mistake. It made it huge, lumpy, and viscous. It was hardly a white I’d choose to drink in this climate and it seems that the role of ‘simple’ fruitier wines were given to those made of Rukatac/Maraština grapes.
A lot has changed on this front as well. The wineries appeared to understand the need to produce younger wines and as such, more fresh, citrus-centric versions of wines from the Pošip grape are readily found although still at prices around 10-13€ which isn’t going to entice many importers. Wineries such as Rizman, Stina, and Zlatan Otok are all producing Pošip wines that are worth a taste.
On the note of Zlatan Otok were one of the first to try making a “Zinfandel” in its original homeland. I’d been subjected to their 2009 Crljenak several times before which was a toasted disaster which, six years on has mellowed–slightly. The 2014 shows a lot more focus though and is more even-tempered and elegant.
This question of Crljenak/Zinfandel in Dalmatia is one that comes up again and again as several wineries have tried to produce one. I’ve yet to decide if many of the results are less than appealing as ultimately this was a grape destined for the shores of Italy and valleys of California or more that many winemakers don’t know how to work it just yet. There is a heavy tendency to over-age in the wine in French oak. This is seen with Vuina in Kaštel Štafilić whose Crljenak is extremely ripe as well as dominated by the barrel regimen.
At first I was curious if this was more a question of coastal grapes but the Krolo Crljenak next door to Vuina in Kaštel Stari who have created a more balanced, rounded wine. It’s interesting to observe the progress of the grape in this specific area as these ‘Kaštel’ villages are what gave the name to the original vines found in the region thus, Crljenak Kaštelanski.
Crljenak is not the only native grape that has garnered a lot of attention recently though as there have been wineries in the north pushing their local grapes as much as they can as well. One of the main protagonists up there is Alen Bibić. He has one of the two wineries that were featured in Anthony Bourdain’s ‘No Reservations – Croatia’ episode and it did a lot to boost his international profile. This is something he’s been working on for years and I actually first met Mr. Bibić in San Francisco in 2005.
He’s a different winemaker than many in the region as he blends his wines whereas most others focus on the traditional single varietal methods. With the exception of a bit of Syrah and minor other international grapes, he also focuses on the grapes local to his region near the town of Skradin. Trying to get people outside of Croatia to understand what Lasin, Debit, Plavina were when they maybe knew that Zinfandel came from Croatia has been no mean feat.
Also tough for Alen was that he was one of the first to truly market non-oaked wines which spoke well to the international wine drinkers but not to those back home in Croatia which is one of the big reasons he exports the majority of his production out of the country.
While Alen works with all his local grapes including Plavac Mali and Pošip his two viticultural stars are Debit and Lasin. The white grape Debit he exercises to no end making young, aged, and even a sparkling wine from it. When asked why he made the sparkling, he replied that it was more economic for him than constantly buying Champagne.
Lasin (also called Lasina) requires attention. Many making wine in Dalmatia equate it to being the Pinot Noir of the region. While such comparisons are often ridiculous one-off statements to catch ears, there is a good deal of truth to it. Difficult to cultivate, although easier now due to advancements in the vineyards, it is a grape that grows best in the more interior regions of Northern Dalmatia. While it doesn’t produce lower alcohol wines like you see in Pinot Noir, it does produce lower alcohol wines for this region ranging between 12-13%.
Alen’s ‘La Sin’ is an elegant wine. Menthol, pepper, light red fruits, excellent balance on the palate while still with enough tannins and no end of wonderful acidity, it is a reserved wine from the region that is unmatched by few. That said, one of the few matches is from Alen’s neighbor, Sladić who produces a wine that is just as nuanced if not more than Alen’s. More of these Lasin grapes have been planted and it will potentially be the rising star of this region.
Hopefully via native grapes and with the addition of some international varietals, this will pave the way forward as people see that the answer to creating an excellent wine isn’t round and from France. Sitting at the same latitude running from the top of the Rhône in France to the middle of Catalonia in Spain, there is no reason that this region of Croatia can’t produce high quality wines. It seems that those who have been fighting an uphill battle all these years are starting to see the slope level out a bit, especially with the entrance to the EU in 2013. One can only hope that they stay the course and more wines like this Lasin or the reserved takes on Plavac Mali emerge while Dalmatia continues to define its place in the world of wine.
