Zlatan Crljenak 2019 from the Zlatan Otok winery in Sveta Nedjelja on the island of Hvar earned the highest score at a tasting of 26 Croatian wines made from Crljenak — the indigenous Dalmatian grape also known as Tribidrag, or Zinfandel — organized by wine promoter Ivana Pranjić at Zagreb’s Wine & Friends wine bar. With this victory, Crljenak in a way returned home. The winery’s founder, the late Zlatan Plenković, planted an experimental vineyard some twenty years ago with Crljenak and related varieties such as Plavac Mali and Plavina. It came after the discovery that California’s Zinfandel is the same variety as our Crljenak, or Tribidrag — the same grape as Italy’s Primitivo and as Kratošija in Montenegro and North Macedonia. Zlatan’s sons Nikola and Marin drew on their father’s experience with the variety to win this tasting.
At Zlatan’s urging, Dražan Krolo from Kaštela also planted Crljenak some years back. It was his Kaštelanski Crljenak 2020 that took second place, trailing by just 0.1 of a point. Third went to Fetivi 2020 from the Markus winery, in which 87 percent Crljenak is seasoned with Babić. The consistency of quality among the Croatian wines was striking: 21 earned a gold medal, their scores separated by only four points. Five silver wines fell a single point below the threshold for gold.
The tasting was organized by wine promoter Ivana Pranjić, with a panel of well-known Croatian oenologists, sommeliers, wine merchants and writers: Prof. Ivan Dropuljić, Franjo Francem, Tomo Jakopović, Jana Košćec, Ivo Kozarčanin, Darko Lugarić, Ivan Pejić, Vjekoslav Stojšić and Nenad Trifunović, with Željko Suhadolnik as an observer.
I brought you together because I love learning from those who know, Ivana Pranjić said before the tasting, while Prof. Dr. Ivan Pejić of Zagreb’s Faculty of Agriculture recalled that Tribidrag is mentioned in a document from the end of the 15th century, which is why our scientific community most often uses that name today.
Equally valid are the names Crljenak Kaštelanski and Zinfandel, under which the variety is known in California. In the Middle Ages it was widely planted across the Dalmatian islands, but during the 20th century it nearly disappeared. We brought it back, and today it is planted on 71.4 hectares, an area still growing by roughly four percent a year. It is more demanding in the vineyard than Plavac Mali, ripens earlier, has higher acidity, and its tannic structure is different as well. It is also gratifying that over the past 10 years fully 80 percent of these wines have fallen into the premium category, Pejić emphasized. Wines arrived for the tasting from all across Dalmatia — from Konavle through the islands, Imotski and Kaštela to the Zadar hinterland, and even from Kutjevo in Slavonia.
Tasted alongside them were the California Zinfandel 2018 from Grgich Hills Estate and three wines from North Macedonia: Kratošija 2021 from Popov, Barovo 2021 from Tikveš (a blend of Vranac and Kratošija), and Kratošija 2021 from Kamnik. All four took gold, and the highest score went to Kratošija 2021 from the Popov winery in North Macedonia. The Wine & Friends wine bar handled the logistics so that the demanding tasting ran perfectly smoothly, while the winner of Croatia’s MasterChef 2021, Ivan Temšić, prepared refreshments: a soup of caramelized celeriac and chickpeas with white truffle oil, crème fraîche and fried chickpeas, and a tuna pašticada with homemade gnocchi, root-vegetable cream and green-apple ketchup.
The full results of the tasting are available here.
01.04.2025.
