What am I going to do if I’m not working, Vedran Kiridžija seemed to ask himself at the presentation of Dingač 2022 Vrime je… at Zagreb’s Bistro Nico’s. With the name he intrigued the guests at the presentation of the wine he had been announcing as his final work. I thought it would be my last before retirement, but I’ll carry on making wines for my own pleasure, added one of the most important Croatian winemakers. His first Dingač was from the 1995 vintage, so Vrime je… represents the crown of an impressive career that has marked three decades of bottling wine. 
This Dingač is from grapes off 40-year-old vines on two sites. The production is the simplest possible, without the influence of modern technology, focused only on the quality of the raw material, explained Vedran’s oenologist Mario Radić. Anyone who tastes it will feel the charm of Dingač and plavac mali, but also the character of Vedran Kiridžija, he added. Kruno Filipović, a lecturer at Wine Academy Croatia, which is part of London’s Wine and Spirit Education Trust (WSET), said that Vrime je… is his new favourite Dingač and that this past summer Andrew Jefford, with whom he had tasted many plavac wines, had been thrilled by it too. Jefford described it as world class and I have to agree with him, Kruno stressed.
Vedran’s long-time collaborator, oenologist and winemaker Leo Gracin, remarked that the name of the wine poses the question time for what? Perhaps for one of the younger family members to carry on developing such a valuable product, Leo himself offered a possible answer. Friend and journalist Željko Garmaz described Vedran as a man guided by the principle maybe I will, and maybe I won’t. He too alluded to the name with which Kiridžija had wanted to announce his retirement. He revealed, however, that Vedran had promised to keep making wine until Hajduk become champions again. 
In other words, we can calmly plan another century of supply of his Pelješac wines. Until then Vedran Kiridžija remains what he has always been, a man who quarrels with the vine and makes peace with the wine, a winemaker whom nothing can break, a man who turned Dingač into a religion. And Vrime je… shows that for Dingač too time runs on Kiridžija’s terms, and it will surely run on for a long time yet, announced Garmaz. Guests were also able to taste other Kiridžija wines: Plavac mali 2022, Tajano 2022, Dingač 2022 and Dingač M 2021. 
Chef Goran Kočiš and sommelier Marko Rundek, with careful food-and-wine pairing, underscored the outstanding quality and diversity of the Kiridžija cellar’s range. The photographs from Bistro Nico’s are by Pavle Vidaković, and below are memories of a wonderful gathering in the cellar at the end of August: Vedran’s monologue in six pictures, conversations with Vedran in a few more photographs, and a short video to finish. Most were taken by Ivana Pranjić (Cork Croatia), the rest by Bacchus’s son.
Tasting of Kiridžija wines, Ivana Pranjić (Cork Croatia)
04.12.2025.
