Erdoro, Plesivica’s largest winery, will give the premiere of its Rizling 2023 Classy at the Rizling Raj(n)ski festival on Saturday, 22 November, at the Hotel Capital, Jurisiceva 22. Until now Rizling had featured as the dominant variety in their Erdoro Blend One, alongside Pinot Gris and Traminac, but now comes their first single-varietal bottling under the new brand of a winery that most still know by its old name, Mladina. The new owners have brought a new spirit, and Saturday will be a fine chance to taste their other whites as well – above all the excellent Sauvignon blanc Classy which, let us recall, was the top white by readers’ choice at last year’s 100 Best Wines of Croatia festival.
From the village of Plesivica, on the mountain massif of the same name and from the Plesivica-Okic wine district, Ivancic Family Winery is also coming to the Festival at the Capital. Brothers Tomislav and Ivan run a boutique winery set above the historic 18th-century Church of St. George. Devoted to sustainable viticulture, they make small batches of still wines from Rhine Riesling (rajnski rizling), Sauvignon, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, plus a Blanc de blancs sparkling wine. Their Rizling comes from grapes off the Hrvojka site; they macerate it briefly, then age the wine six months on fine lees. They will bring it to the Rizling Raj(n)ski festival on Saturday, 22 November, at Zagreb’s Hotel Capital, Jurisiceva 22. And there will, of course, be more Rizling from this Croatian wine district, small in area but great in quality.
A little below them, also in and on Plesivica, sits the Korak winery with a family restaurant that holds a Michelin star. Renowned for their wines from Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Sauvignon and, of course, Rizling, they were among the first in Croatia to name single vineyard sites such as Cimbuscak, Laskovec and Kamenica on their labels. Their Rizlings are long-lived and long remembered, while a special experience comes from the whites in the In Search of Lost Time range. In vintages that allow and deserve it, they make these with no added sulphur. 
LAskovecki vinoGRADI is the official name of the Velikanovic family winery, which farms six hectares of vineyards and, in the Plesivica village of Vlaskovec, makes wines solely from its own grapes. That way we shape the wine’s quality from the very start of production, they point out at the winery. They grow Sauvignon, Pinot Gris (sivi pinot), Grasevina, Manzoni, Muscat and, of course, Rizling. They work with the well-known Slovenian winemaker and consultant Matjaz Lemut. This April the German magazine Falstaff rated their Rizling 2021 at 92 points.
The Braje family from Lokosin dol at the foot of Plesivica will also present their Rizlings at the Capital. Father and son Robert and Patrik, together with Robert’s wife (and Patrik’s mother) Sanda, run the Braje winegrowing house. Besides the winery, they have a restaurant with a small offering of outstanding home cooking, matched to the wines they craft. They are among the few in Croatia to make, from Rizling alone, a sparkling wine by the Champagne method of second fermentation in the bottle. Their still wines are very good too, and alongside the Rizling one must single out a lovely Crveni veltlinac (Roter Veltliner). It is a variety scarce even in its Austrian homeland, and this is probably the only Croatian wine made from it. 
A few hundred metres away in Lokosin dol is the Sirovica family winery, run by siblings Silvia and Marko together with their father Stjepan. They grow Pinot Noir, Pinot Blanc and Chardonnay, from which – with older varieties – they make a mature, five-year-aged sparkling wine by the traditional method, while the cellar still holds the odd of-age bottle of Rizling from 2007. Two of their wines from the Covid years are excellent. The Riesling 2022 aged 365 days in a large cask from 1959, then 12 months in bottle. The grapes come from the steep Bresnica site: the lower part gives more acidity, the upper part more sugar, and it is sometimes picked in two passes. The amber Rhine riesling Maceration 2021 was aged 390 days in a 225-litre barrel. 
From Pavlovcani in the Jastrebarsko area, the Sember family are also coming to Rizling Raj(n)ski. Their white and red, amber and sparkling wines are outstanding, and the Rizlings lead the dance. The family’s classic Rhine Riesling comes from the Popov breg site and is as reliable as Livakovic in goal for our national football team. Their Rhine Riesling Vucjak, after spontaneous fermentation, ages in 500-litre barrels. Over time it develops beautifully and is as noble as Luka Modric. Their Qvevri was the first extremely macerated Rizling: six months in contact with the grape skins, then two years in oak and two in glass. This powerful wine calls to mind Ivan Perisic – watch and enjoy, or rather taste and enjoy. Ab Ovo is a new skin-contact wine from the same variety, an expressive meditation wine whose full potential is yet to reveal itself. 
And then we shall see which of our football geniuses we can compare it to. But it is almost impossible to find a better final invitation to Saturday’s Festival – which begins at the Capital at 6 p.m. – than this Plesivica Rizling seven. It is preceded by masterclasses of Austrian Rizlings at 2 p.m. and of archive wines from Enjingi’s cellar starting at 4 p.m.; those who have not yet done so can read more here.
21.11.2025.
