Some things about Croatian wine

Based on a sample of people at a Gallery in Bermondsey last week, I can only conclude that on the whole, Croatia is a nation of tall, amazingly beautiful people.  My Croatian friend Igor (who can in no way be described as lanky) was helping out at one of the stands and he confirmed that this is the case.

Indeed, one of the reasons for his move to London many years ago was the problematic nature of being a relative midget in a country of glamorously gigantic types. 

I had a great time at this tasting.  Not just gazing up at an array of bewitching faces but discovering, completely unexpectedly, a goodly selection of completely natural and amazing wines, many of which we will shortly be promoting.

Some other things we should probably all know about Croatia :-

For a small country, it has an impressive range of microclimates thanks to sea, mountains and plains. Not surprising then that they make the full range of wine styles.    The wine regions are split into those which are continental and the coastal.  The mountains here stretch from west to east; protecting from the icy northern winds and while the continental part is still mainly white wine territory, more are  planting red here now.

The coastal zone stretches from Istria, down along the Adriatic coast.  Here, the plentiful sunshine and good soils make the growing of great grapes relatively easily done. 

It is a hugely historic wine producing country, with the ancient Greeks making wine in the north many hundred years before the birth of Christ and when the Roman’s conquered here several centuries later, they spent much time developing both the wine and the olive oil industries.   The advent of Christianity in the 4^th century was another boost to the industry with wine used in church ceremonies and for centuries after this, Monasteries were important and prolific producers.

Indeed, the fact that the church controlled so much of it is what saved Croatian wine at the time of the Turkish invasion in the 15^th century.  Their strict anti alcohol laws permitted religious drinking and so the vineyards surivived.

The more recent history follows that of many smaller and more obscure regions in both France and Italy.  After the  relentless onslaughts of phylloxera and two world wars, many farmers abandoned the land in favour of city life and many of the finest (but most back breaking vineyards) were lost.  This in turn led to a real decline in overall quality.  Not a unique story.

Communism, of course, did wine absolutely no favours with the emphasis very much on bigger co-operatives and  quantity way about quality.

With independence, things began to change.  The bigger cellars became privatised and a host of smaller, very quality focused producers began to spring up.  This is the renaissance we are beginning to see the impressive fruits of.

Croatia grows a large range of varieties, 60 of which are indigenous.  How very exciting.  Grasevina (Welsch Riesling), Plavic Mali  Crni and Malvazija Istriana are the 3 most widely planted.   Plavic Mali is the result of a cross between Zinfandel and Dobricic; with Zinfandel being one and the same as the obscure Croatian variety Crljenack Kastelanski.

 Try saying that sentence after a few glasses – it is probably the only way of getting a English tongue around those combination of consonants.

Other varieties we can’t wait to try (mainly thanks to intriguing names) include :- Zlahtina, Debit (yes, really.  They have a grape called Debit) Grk, White Posip, Skrlet. 

October is officially going to be Croatia month at Green & Blue, so keep an eye out for tastings and open bottles of new, natural and delicious wine.