Predicate Traminac from Međimurje is crowned with gold from the London Decanter in Bregovita or Hilly Croatia, together with rosé sparkling wine and Graševina from Varaždin County
Wines from Central Croatia won as many as 91 medals at this year's Decanter, the most prestigious wine competition in the world. The wines of Bregovita Hrvatska received 50 bronze, 38 silver, and three gold awards. In London, it was first announced that Vina Furjan deserved the gold for the Rose Tradition Blanc de Noirs Extra Brut sparkling wine and Marija Kolarek for the 2023 Graševina vintage, but later news arrived that Prestige Traminac from the winery St. Jerome is also a gold winner.
"This is the success we've been dreaming about for years! We aim for a high-quality wine segment and systematically develop in this direction. Our Prestige Traminac is a blend of two vintages - optional dried berry harvests from 2021 and 2022. The wine is extremely sweet, but also has the necessary freshness. It is vibrant on the nose", said Karlo Kramar, director of the winery St. Jerome from Međimurje, and explained that the news about Decanter's award was delayed because the winery's registration for the competition was awaited.
It is a new winery that developed from the Štrigova Cellar, and whose name is linked to St. Jerome, a saint born in ancient Stridon, today's Štrigova.
Furjan Wines are also proud of their great international success. "Our sparkling wine Rose Tradition Blanc de Noirs Extra Brut is the only sparkling wine in Croatia that was awarded a gold medal at Decanter this year! It is a great success, especially since our sparkling wine was competing with sparkling wines from famous wineries, including those from the French Champagne region. This rosé sparkling wine is the crown of our production. We produce it using the classic method from the Pinot Noir variety. The gold medal from Decanter opens up new business opportunities for us", said Tomislav Furjan from the family winery Vina Furjan from Babinac near Varaždin. This winery received another medal from this year's Decanter. Their sparkling wine Dominus Tradition 2021 won a silver medal with high 93 points.
In 2016, the winery turned to the production of sparkling wines, and by the end of next year even 90 per cent of the production will be sparkling wines.
The Varaždin County can be proud of another gold award from Decanter - the one that Marija Kolarek won for Graševa's 2023 vintage. "All this led to this year's gold! We jokingly say that the most deserving of this prestigious award is a fight. Namely, the hail caused us a lot of damage last year. In the end, we only picked grapes in one half of the vineyard, so the harvest was halved. We managed to save that part of the crop with great effort and ecological means", said winemaker Stjepan Kolarek from Tužno, whose wines bear the Kolarek family name. Miroslav Polovanec, president of the association Bregovita Hrvatska and winemaker of the Polovanec winery, also agrees with him. He said that the overall success of the Central Hills of Croatia in London was negatively affected by unfavourable weather conditions last year for viticulture. More than 18,000 samples of wine from all over the world arrived at the Decanter World Wine Awards competition. 366 wines from Croatia were awarded.
Central hilly Croatia is one of the four Croatian wine regions. It includes the City of Zagreb and eight counties. The vineyards of Zagorje and Međimurje, Prigorje and Bilogora, Pokuplje, Moslavina and Plešivica are located in this area.
Photos: Bregovita Hrvatska
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