At the first En Primeur of Mountainous Croatia on March 14, 2024 at the Esplanade Hotel in Zagreb, visitors tasted 200 new wines from 38 wineries in Central Mountainous Croatia. In addition to the wines of last year's vintage, the winemakers also presented those of older vintages that are just entering the market. Several hundred hoteliers, restaurateurs, oenologists, merchants and citizens - wine lovers - got to know them.
"We hope that En Primeur Bregovita Hrvatska will become traditional and that everyone who wants to will be able to get to know these wonderful people and their wines in the coming years. I see enormous potential in Mountainous Croatia. Although the last wine-growing year was difficult due to bad weather and other challenges that farmers faced, and the vine is a demanding culture, the new wines of Bregovita Hrvatska are excellent. There are no more bad wines in Croatia. I say to the winemakers of Bregovita Hrvatska: 'Your wines are great! Continue to work on their promotion and the result will not fail,'' said the director of the Directorate for Agricultural Land, Plant Production and Market of the Ministry of Agriculture, Sandra Zokić.
En Primeur Bregovita Hrvatska was organized to present the wine wealth of Central Bregovita Croatia, and to encourage restaurateurs to include its wines in their wine lists. "For years, we have presented our new wines at events in other wine regions, and this year, for the first time, we are organizing En Primeur independently. Bregovita Hrvatska will celebrate five years of existence this summer. We are systematically developing the viticulture and winemaking of the Central Highlands of Croatia and we are working on the promotion of its wines. At this En Primeur, you will recognize the fighting spirit, creativity and innovation of many of our winemakers, with great effort, work and expertise," said Miroslav Polovanec, president of Bregovita Hrvatska, the association of winemakers and winegrowers of Central Bregovita Croatia, which has 105 members.
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, Pokuplja, Moslavina and Plešivica are located in this area.
"A large number of new modern wineries in this central part of Croatia are becoming a favorite enogastronomic destination with an authentic offer, because there you can taste the wines of a large number of autochthonous varieties - Pušipel, Škrlet, Kraljevina and Sokol as well as top sparkling wines. We believe that both this En Primeur and the new wines of Bregovita Hrvatska will confirm the increasing importance of this wine region for the overall Croatian wine offer", said Prof. Ph.D. Dragan Kovačević, Vice President of the Croatian Chamber of Commerce for Agriculture and Tourism.
Along with the new wines, the winemakers also presented their wineries and the accompanying tourist and catering offer. Namely, although their goal is for their wines to be well represented in bars, restaurants and hotels throughout Croatia, and even abroad, they pay great attention to the sale of wine at the doorstep. They want lovers of a good drop to get to know the places where their favorite wines are made, and the people who make those wines.
Photos: Rikard Jadan
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