As part of the programme of the 58th Fair and Exhibition of Zagorje Wines, Bedekovčina 2026, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries – Directorate for Professional Support to Agricultural Development organised a round table on the role of wine judging and fairs in strengthening the market recognisability of wine.
Taking part in the discussion were Zdravko Tušek (State Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries), Ivan Dropuljić (director of the VINOcom festival), Robert Horvat (Vina Horvat, president of the Hortus Croatiae association), Ivana Puhelek (oenologist, Puhelek Purek Winery), Boris Vuglec (winemaker and restaurateur, Vuglec breg), Tomislav Panenić (the Graševina Croatica association) and Zdravko Žuža (Bora winery), while the excellent moderator was Žarko Stilin, director of the WineRI festival and organiser of the international Kvarner Trophy competition.
The aim of the panel discussion was to exchange concrete experiences and open up key questions: how much do awards and medals influence sales, how do fairs contribute to a wine’s visibility, and how to link judging and marketing into a powerful tool for market presence.
And as is usually the case, it was a very interesting discussion with differing views on the topics raised, but without any conclusion or message for winemakers. That is nothing unusual with subjects like these, and realistically not all winemakers should be lumped together, because for some, entirely justifiably, local competitions matter more, while others feel that the international ones carry greater weight. The question of how to valorise competition awards is individual in any case, because without good marketing no winemaker will sell any better regardless of the medals won. What is noticeable here, and by no means a good thing, is that wines are prepared specially for competitions and, worse still, in minimal quantities, after which the awards won are used as a marketing tool for other wines entirely. In this way consumers are deceived, and in that respect rigorous controls should certainly be imposed.
The panellists also touched on judging panels, and whether they should be made up of oenologists who hunt for flaws in a wine or sommeliers who look for its beauty; and naturally there was no agreement there either, because the truth lies somewhere in the middle, although at the world’s most respected competitions oenologists are almost entirely absent. The topic of a national wine competition was also raised, which, says State Secretary Zdravko Tušek, the Ministry of Agriculture will support if the regional organisations reach agreement and present a joint proposal. Knowing the circumstances and the cooperation to date, that will probably never happen.
There were fewer opposing views on wine events; everyone agreed they are necessary, and winemakers choose where to appear given that there are many fairs, each offering different opportunities. What was not mentioned is that, alongside the professional audience of sommeliers, traders, restaurateurs and media representatives, major wine events also gather a large number of people who simply love wine, thereby broadening the base of consumers who ultimately drink and pay for that wine. It is precisely in this segment that Zagreb’s Vinocom leads the way, being by far the most important wine event in Croatia.
Praise to the organiser for the initiative and the organisation, with a suggestion to hold such a discussion on some of the other sensitive topics that are eroding Croatian winemaking, such as the import of cheap, bulk Graševina from Hungary at a price of 80 euro cents, which has flooded the retail chains and directly threatens our producers. A great deal of attention is rightly paid to the premium or top-tier segment, where things are fairly well arranged, but that is only a small part of our production, so care for producers of quality wines who are burdened with problems ought to be far greater. Another interesting topic would be the trade deficit of as much as 45 million euros; last year 36 million litres of wine were imported, while in the same period only 3 million were exported. Yet another painful point is that over the past 10 years we have lost around 5,000 hectares of vineyards, so we hope discussions will be opened on these subjects too, all for the benefit of Croatian viticulture and winemaking.
Written by: Tomo Jakopović
