Golden line of Belje Wines

Fifteen gold medals for selected Belje wines at the recently held domestic wine evaluations.

Wine evaluations in Croatia are becoming more and more important every year, and awards from domestic evaluations are gaining more and more importance among consumers. May and June are traditionally the months with the most wine festivals and wine quality evaluations, and the awards won represent an incentive for the wines of the previous harvest, which are released on the market in this period.

In the last month, Vina Belje won 15 gold medals for quality from the Graševina Festival in Kutjevo, the Vinodar competition in Daruvar, the 56th Wine Exhibition of Continental Croatia in Sveti Ivan Zelina and from the Baranja Vinathlon. In addition to winning gold, Belje premium merlot is also the best-rated red wine in Sv. Ivan Zelina, which is another confirmation of Baranja's exceptional potential as a red wine region.

Gold medals were awarded to premium Graševina, premium merlot, cabernet sauvignon-merlot blend, and the entire Goldberg line, which includes Goldberg Graševina, Goldberg Red and Goldberg White. Ruby 2021, an optional vintage that combines Frankovka and Merlot, also won its first gold. This semi-sweet wine is a novelty in the range of Belje red wines, and it is characterized by balanced tannins and softness, as well as the expressive ruby ​​red colour from which the wine got its name.

Marijana Škiljo, oenologist of Vina Belje, believes that domestic wine evaluations have a special value due to the excellent knowledge of the wine stylistics of a particular terroir. "Domestic evaluations bring us local and national prestige, which is especially important for Graševina. Graševina predominates in our vineyards, so every year we create three completely separate and different lines of Graševina, each of which nevertheless has a clear signature of Baranja and Croatian Podunavlje. Our premium graševina from the 2023 vintage has just hit the market and has already won four golds. These medals are the best confirmation that we used the full potential of our vineyards even in the demanding year of 2023. I must also point out that we are also extremely proud of the gold medals for the wines from the Goldberg ultra premium line because they represent the pinnacle of quality that comes from our cellar.“

Photos: Marko Rakič