Balkan Wines

From Balkan Insight:

Croatia is geographically very diverse and has two climatic regions, Mediterranean and continental, so is home to many varieties of grape and a wide range of good wines.

The country has about 60 vineyards and the majority of are small, with relatively few big wine producers. The production of white wines dominates. Croatia’s eastern region, Slavonia, with its wine centres of Kutjevo and Ilok, is the motherland of grasevina, a dry white wine with a medium alcohol content and a strong bouquet, very similar to riesling.

Some Slavonian wine producers have opened their cellars to visitors so the impression so people can get away from the heatwave, take a rest in a chilled cellar and taste freshly-tapped wine from the barrel. Another popular wine from another part of the country, plavac mali, is the leading variety in the Dalmatia area. It has a strong taste which recalls the sweetness of blackberries or dark cherries with some notes of spice and pepper.

Although Croatian wine is very often associated with summer, the seaside and plates of seafood, the country’s biggest wine celebration happens in the autumn. St. Martin's Day is celebrated on November 11, and in Croatia is known as Martinje, “the day when must turns into wine”, marks the end of the farming year and the beginning of the harvest. Martinje is mostly celebrated in continental Croatia where people enjoy dishes such as goose with mlinci (dried flatbread soaked in water), chestnuts, sausages and sour cabbage, all accompanied by young wine. (Read more.)