The 2023 Rosé, a blend of merlot and cabernet franc from the Bastian winery, was the top-ranked rosé in the tasting for Croatia’s 100 Best Wines, an event organized – like this year’s Festival at the Sheraton Hotel Zagreb – by Vinski klub (the Wine Club). It is also an open invitation to everyone spending their summer days in Istria to stop by Buje and taste it, alongside the other wines of this excellent young estate. This year’s 100 Best also included the 2023 Rosé from Belaj, made at the eponymous castle in the municipality of Cerovlje, and Festigia Rosé 2023 from Agrolaguna of Poreč.
Two of the three finest sparkling wines were Istrian. Blanc & Noir 2020 from the Prelac winery of Momjan takes its name – “white and black” – from its blend of chardonnay (50 percent), crni pinot (pinot noir, 30 percent) and malvazija. Made by the traditional method of secondary fermentation in the bottle, it spent three years on fine lees and calls for special company or the finest dishes of raw fish and seafood. Blanc de Noirs Brut 2020 from the Veralda winery of Brtonigla is a superb blanc de noirs – the first white sparkling wine made from the black refošk grape – and shared second place in the tasting.
Veralda also placed an amber wine among the 100 Best, again in second position. It is called Ambra Malvazija and comes from the 2020 vintage. Among Istrian whites vinified as reds – that is, with long skin maceration in the must – the 100 Best featured Amfora Malvazija 2021 from the brilliant Kabola winery of Momjan and the very fine Simminor 2018, again a Malvazija, from the Dobravac winery of Rovinj. Malvazija, of course, also dominates the white Istrian wines ranked among Croatia’s finest.
Omo Malvazija 2022 is the wine of Milan Budinski, one of our finest enologists, who long directed winemaking at Agrolaguna and now pursues his own projects at Veralda while advising numerous other vintners. Templara 2022 is a fine Malvazija from the Rossi family near Vižinada; Malvazija Bomarchese Selekcija 2020 is one of the jewels of Moreno Degrassi, a winemaker working wonders in Savudrija; and Santa Lucia Malvazija 2018 is a marvel from the Kozlović winery of Momjan, named after its vineyard site.
Malvazija Capeletto 2015 from the Radovan winery likewise bears the name of a vineyard near Višnjan, and Franko Radovan’s nearest neighbor along the vine rows is the Istrian arm of the Saints Hills winery. There grows the chardonnay for Le Chiffre 2022, a wine for which the celebrated international enologist Michel Rolland is also responsible. Rounding out the list of Istrian whites it would be a shame to miss is the lovely sauvignon Grimalda Zelena 2023 from the great Ivica Matošević of Krunčići in Sveti Lovreč.
Among the must-try Istrian reds are five single-varietal bottlings: Cabernet Sauvignon 2016 is yet another outstanding work by Moreno Degrassi, while Punta Greca 2021 is the celebrated merlot of the Medea winery of Vodnjan. From Motovun come the wonderful Tomaz Teran Barbarossa Superior 2018 and Fakin Teran Il Primo 2019, and from nearby Kaldir the gorgeous Benvenuti Teran Santa Elisabetta 2020. There is Teran (a bracing, dark-fruited Istrian red) too in Arman Franc Il Grande 2016 from Vižinada, alongside merlot and cabernet franc.
Red 2018 from the Meneghetti winery in the village of Bale and Cuvée Noir 2015 from the Legovina winery of Mekiši near Kaštelir are great wines built on the classic Bordeaux blend of cabernet sauvignon, merlot and cabernet franc. The sweet finale of this Istrian recommendation is Muškat San Salvatore 2021 from the Benvenuti brothers of Kaldir. Nikola and Albert craft this delightful treat by further drying late-harvested grapes from the site whose name the wine bears.
From Kvarner, three wines made Croatia’s 100 Best: two from Vrbnik and the third from Novi Vinodolski, two sparkling and one still. Žlahtina Single Vineyard Selection 2022 from the Ivan Katunar wine house of Vrbnik – žlahtina being Kvarner’s signature white grape – is a beautifully conceived, well-executed wine, opulent on the nose and full on the palate. Part of it was matured in oak, and it drinks very easily. A few hundred meters away lies the Šipun winery of Ivica Dobrinčić, winemaker, nurseryman and savior of old grape varieties.
His Maličić is a sparkling wine made from žlahtina by the tank (Charmat) method. These two Vrbnik wines also delighted Belgrade’s wine public this May, at the presentation of the leaders among Croatia’s 100 Best Wines. They had not expected žlahtina with such charm and, at the same time, such seriousness. Pavlomir 1288 from the winery in Novi Vinodolski is made by the classic Champagne method of secondary fermentation in the bottle, from chardonnay, bijeli pinot (pinot blanc) and žlahtina. We published the Dalmatian wines from Croatia’s 100 Best list two days ago.
09.08.2025.
